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THE WONDERS OF 
THE DUNES 

















THE Camp GuarpDIAN 


THE WONDERS 


OF 


THE DUNES 


By 
GEORGE A. BRENNAN 


Illustrated from Photographs 


By Frank N. HOHENBERGER 


INDIANAPOLIS 
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 


CopyriGHT, 1923 


By THe Bopsps-MErRRILL COMPANY 


Printed in the United States of America 


Dee. 9, 194), ML, Hwang. 


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Fr. 


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Sept 4 7 


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Se ae Pee 


To 


MY WIFE 
SOPHIA M. BRENNAN 


A PIONEER OF THE 
CALUMET REGION 
WHOSE ASSISTANCE 
HAS BEEN OF GREAT VALUE 
THIS BOOK IS 
DEDICATED 


For 
For 
For 
For 
For 


THANKSGIVING 


ee 


all Thy ministries, 

morning mist, and gently-falling dew; 
summer rains, for winter ice and snow; 
whispering wind and purifying storm; 

the reft clouds that show the tender blue; 


For the forked flash, and long tumultuous roll; 


For 
For 
For 
For 
For 
For 
For 
For 
For 


mighty rains that wash the dim earth clean; 
the sweet promise of the seven-fold bow; 
the soft sunshine, and the still calm night; 
dimpled laughter of soft summer seas; 
latticed splendor of the sea-born moon; 
gleaming santls, and granite frontled cliffs; 
flying spume, and waves that whip the skies; 
rushing gale, and for the great glad calm; 
Might so mighty, and for Love so true, 


With equal mind, 


We thank Thee, Lord! 


JoHN OxENHAM 


INTRODUCTION 


Just a little beyond our eastern gateway lies the Dune country,— 
the vast garden of mid-America. Within easy reach of millions, it has 
remained practically unknown. But have we not always been blind to 
the great treasures of the out-of-doors? Man allows himself in his 
own conceit to do things that make him forget he is an inseparable 
part of nature, and that, in wild beauty untrampled by his kind, he 
may find himself. 

The Dune country possesses all the charm, mystery and beauty 
that primitive America has to offer anywhere. Countless ages are 
written in its sand-hills, and its to-morrow is in the making. High 
above the Dune woods loom the gray heads of the Dune giants, 
where the west wind and the sand play tag over carpets of bearberry, 
among gnarled oaks centuries old. Farther down, in the blowouts 
and on the Dune meadows, friends of pleasanter climes, like the cactus, 
have found shelter and protection far away from their ancestral 
homes. Here the North, the South, the East and the West meet in 
cheerful rivalry, each selecting as its own, the place to which it is 
best adapted. 

It is a native arboretum of vast instruction to those who seek 
knowledge in the out-of-doors of plant and animal life. It is a shrine 
for solace and quietness in contrast to the turbulent life of the great 
city. 

Here you will find intimate beauty and hidden treasures of the 
flower world, besides great dramatic expressions in the moving sands 
and the forest-covered Dunes of long ago. 

Here you may wander among buried woods of unknown ages and 
sit in contemplation on lands of to-day. Trails of bygone times, 
blazed by Indian and pioneer, and shaded by a host of centenarians, 
give thought for reflection and historic reminiscence. 

Magic are the Dunes where they meet the sea—the sea that bore 
them. There is an ocean-like grandeur in the broad stretches of 
beaches; the waves, chasing one another in madness, pitch high; the 


INTRODUCTION 


west wind roars and the sand blizzard rules; seagulls fill the air like 
giant snowflakes. Then the Dune country is in its making, and a 
grand drama is enacted on those Indiana shores. 

Spring, when dogwood and shadbush vie with each other in gar- 
landing hills and valleys; when violets and columbine cover the forest 
floor with a carpet for fairies only to tread upon;.when seas of lupines 
invade the Dune meadows, and the love songs of mating birds fill 
the air! 


Summer, in deep green, with shadows refreshed by cooling breezes 
from. the lake. ; 


Autumn, when the Dune partakes of every ray in the rainbow; 
when sand-cherries set the beaches aflame; and the sand and wind- 
beaten pines look at it all in amazement, reflected in the turquoise sea. 

Winter, in its white mantle of snow, a fairy-land marked by the 
footprints of its native inhabitants. 

A people possessing love for this country will never sacrifice this 
out-of-doors shrine. With zealous eyes they watch over it and guard 
its destiny far into the to-morrow. 


Jens JENSEN. 


FOREWORD 


For many years the Dunes, with its beauty and wealth of scenery, 
has been the author’s favorite haunt. The rambles there presented 
many opportunities for enjoying the beauties of the Dunes and becom- 
ing acquainted with their geography, plants, animals and history. 

When Higley and Raddin, in 1891, published the Flora of Cook 
County, Illinois, and Lake County, Indiana, for the Chicago Academy 
of Sciences, it was the good fortune of the author to be of some 
assistance in the preparation of that work. For a number of years his 
attention has been given to the study of the history of the Chicago 
Dune region. 

Many interviews with old settlers in different sections have been 
held; many trips over old Indian trails and pioneer roads have been 
made on foot and photographs taken; interesting and historic places, 
now forgotten or even passed away, have been visited; libraries in 
Illinois and Indiana have been consulted for data on the early history 
of this region so that the historical events here chronicled may be 
accurately recorded. 

So little is known of the beautiful Duneland by the majority of 
people, that the author has been urged by his friends to write a book 
describing both its natural features and its history. For that purpose 
this book has been written. It is not a scientific-historical treatise, but 
a popular description of the Dune region,—that Mecca of the nature 
lover and the brain weary—by one who has often found rest and 
inspiration there. 

The author would express to the following friends his great appre- 
ciation of aid rendered: Doctor Frank M. Woodruff, Curator of the 
Chicago Academy of Sciences, who is the leading authority on the 
birds of the Chicago region; Mrs. Gertrude M. Walker, of Chicago, 
for her interesting notes on a number of the birds observed in the 
Dunes, with dates of appearance; Mr. Richard Lieber, Director of 
Indiana Department of Conservation, for his very great assistance; 
Honorable Martin T. Krueger, the patriotic, public-spirited former 
Mayor of Michigan City, Indiana, for some very valuable history of 


FOREWORD 


that region; Mr. M. T. Green, of Tremont, on history of the Tremont 
region; Mr. Daniel Kelly, of Valparaiso, Indiana, on the early history 
of the Calumet River and Miller; Mr. Jens Jensen, for his charming 
introduction; Miss Caroline M. McIlvaine, Librarian Chicago Histori- 
cal Society; Mrs. Jessie Palmer Weber, Secretary Illinois Historical 
Society, Springfield, Illinois; Mrs. Harriet Taylor, Assistant Librarian 
Newberry Library, Chicago; Miss Jessie M. Woodford, Assistant 
Librarian, Chicago Public Library; Miss Irene C. Murphy, Librarian 
Illinois Society, Sons of the American Revolution, Chicago; and Mr. 
Louis M. Bailey, Librarian Gary Public Library. 

To the members of the various organizations that are cooperating 
for the preservation of the Dunes, and who have taken so warm an 
interest in the preparation of this book, the author would express his 
sincerest appreciation; especially to the Prairie Club, the Out Door 
Art League, the Arche Club, the Chicago Nature Club, the Chicago 
Woman’s Club, the Wild Flower Preservation Society and the National 
Dunes Park Association.  —G. A. B. 


CONTENTS 


PART ONE 


History 
CHAPTER 
I THe PREHISTORIC PEOPLE 
Il THe AMERICAN INDIANS 
III THe FrencH Occupation 
IV Ferpinanp La SALLE 
V Tue CoNQUEST OF THE Nee iente 
VI Tue Cuyicaco MASSACRE 
VII PioneER LIFE : 
VIII Loc Casins, PRAIRIE Seda eiee AND Gane 
IX JosepH Bartty—THE Fur-TRADER 
X Mr. Joun G. Morcan 
XI  PeEr1op or EXPANSION 
XII Praces or INTEREST 
XIII THe Worx or TIME 
XIV Dunes Nationa Park 


PART TWO 


THE WoNDERS OF THE DUNES 


XV Tue BEAvTIES oF THE DUNES 

XVI GEOGRAPHY 
XVII PLants 
XVIII FLowers or THE Dunes 

XIX ANIMALS 

XX Brirps 

XXI Pe eeContiived 

XXII Orner Anima LIFE : 

ConcLusion: Wuy THE DUNES Snniin Br ives 


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The Wonders of the Dunes 


CHAPTER I 
THE PREHISTORIC PEOPLE 


For ages the Chicago Dune region, ranging from Wauke- 
gan to Michigan City, has been one of the centers of life 
and activity on the American continent. Here was every- 
thing to attract settlers in primeval, prehistoric days. The 
many large animals found in the woods bordering the shores 
of Lake Michigan and the rivers and lakes connected with 
it; the myriads of fish and water fowl; the great beds of 
shell-fish; the wild rice everywhere in the inlets, rivers and 
great marshes,—furnished everything that prehistoric 
dwellers needed for food, clothing and shelter. 

According to a scanty tradition these prehistoric people 
were undoubtedly of a very low type; they may have be- 
longed to the same type as those who have left the great 
shell mounds along the Atlantic coast and the many rivers 
leading into it. They were probably the ancestors of the 
Skraellings, or Eskimos. While it is not known definitely 
who they were, it is believed they were living here at the 
end of the Glacial Period, and possibly with the ancient lion, 
tiger, mastodon and mammoth. 

I 


2 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


The tradition of the Rune Stone Expedition to the Great 
Lakes in Minnesota in 1362, via the Dunes, was based on a 
tradition that some of the Norsemen took a trip to the West 
on an exploring tour. This trip is mythical. The Rune 
Stone was a stone tablet with Runic letters cut in it, dug up 
at Kensington, Minnesota, purporting to have been buried 
there by the Norsemen, in 1362. 

It is not stated in the report of this mythical trip of the 
Norsemen to Kensington, Minnesota, who the savages were 
that killed some of these explorers; whether Skraellings or 
Indians. About this time, 1362, the Indians undoubtedly 
must have spread through the country, driving the Eskimos 
north, and occupying a pretty large territory. 

The Indians of the present tribes were not the first 
inhabitants to dwell in the Mississippi Valley. The first 
dwellers in the Chicago Dune region were probably savage, 
primitive people of prehistoric times, who may have been 
the ancestors of the Skraellings or Eskimos. 

They may have been pushed north and east by the com- 
ing of a new race from the West, probably the Chippewa 
Indians; these were pushed up north in their turn by an- 
other race that evidently came from the south, whom we 
call the Mound Builders, because they have left so many 
mounds of various kinds. There is a great diversity of 
opinion among historians and scientists as to whether the 
Indians are descendants of the Mound Builders. It is very 
probable that the later Indians from the West killed the 
more civilized Mound Builders, and married their women 
as is the usual custom among primitive races. 

The Indian was also a Mound Builder; but our present- 
day Indians are not able either to plan or execute the won- 


THE PREHISTORIC PEOPLE 3 


derful mounds erected by the inhabitants of the Mississippi 
Valley many centuries ago, probably long before the landing 
of the Norsemen. On some of the mounds, great trees have 
been found dating several centuries before the landing of 
Columbus. If the Indians were descendants of the Mound 
Builders, it is likely they would have retained much of the 
skill of these people. 

It is possible that the Mound Builders came to the United 
States from Mexico, which had been settled for many cen- 
turies, and these Mound Builders may have considered this 
country Mexico’s colony. Perhaps they were mixed with 
some white blood from Europe or northern Africa. At- 
lantis may have been the West Indies before the great 
cataclysm that destroyed her. The Mayas of Mexico had 
traffic with Cuba for many centuries as Cuba was her 
colony. It is absurd to believe that America was settled 
from Siberia only. | 

The Dewey collection of twelve thousand relics dug up 
in New York, and recently presented to the New York 
State Museum, sheds light on the early settlement not only 
of New York, but also of the whole northern part of the 
United States, and southern part of Canada, from the Great 
Lakes to the Atlantic coast. 

Doctor Arthur C. Parker, the noted State Archzologist 
of New York, states that these relics came from many 
different tribes and classes of Indians. He says: 


“In the most ancient cities explored by Mr. Dewey unques- 
tional vestiges of a people strongly resembling the Eskimos 
were discovered. In cities of the next later period relics of 
the early Algonquins appeared. Still later appear the Mound 


4 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Builders, and the specimens found by Mr. Dewey are among 
the most remarkable ever discovered in this state. 

“The collection shows evidence that the Mound Builders 
were displaced by later people, perhaps another branch of the 
Algonquins from the West. In their turn these later comers 
were displaced by the war-like Iroquois, who expelled all 
other tribes from the region we now know as New York 
State, and claimed it as their own. 

“For instance, among the articles which are evidence of 
the Eskimos’ occupation of New York is a beautifully made 
semilunar knife, having near its top a natural inclusion of 
calcite—crystal of lime—which spreads out in ornamental 
form like some strange Mongolian symbol. It must have 
been highly prized both by owner and maker who took such 
care to preserve the natural design on the stone. It was used 
in splitting open the fish found in the Genessee River and its 
tributaries. It is difficult to say how old this specimen is, 
but it is not improbable that it dates back ten thousand years. 
It is much like those used in the north by the Eskimos.”’ 


Doctor Parker goes on to state that remains of camps 
of these people have been found around Lake Ontario, Lake 
Champlain, and the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers. Doctor 
Parker thinks the Eskimos migrated from the North by 
means of dog sleds, because the bones of dogs are some- 
times found with their relics. This is undoubtedly true, but 
evidently some of their traveling was done in their skin 
boats, as described by the Norsemen at Vinland, who said 
the Skraellings were so many that their canoes darkened 
the ocean. 

The mounds that are scattered through the Mississippi 
Valley are of different kinds and are often surrounded by 
or set in combination with earthworks of various forms. 
The large mounds are of different forms, such as the Altar 


Ure bniec is) ORIG PEOPLE 5 


Mounds, Burial Mounds, Temple Mounds, Animal Mounds, 
and small ones that may have been raised for dwelling pur- 
poses, as was done in the Old World and parts of the New 
by driving piles in the water. 

These low mounds, from one to five or six feet in height, 
and from thirty to over one hundred forty feet in diameter, 
are found from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arkansas Valley 
and in Texas. The state archeologist of Oklahoma has 
explored thousands of these mounds lately. They have 
remains of poles fastened to a central post, like a huge 
umbrella, making a circular dwelling. This was covered 
with brush and sod. Some central posts were ten or fifteen 
feet high, with poles twenty to thirty feet long, radiating 
from the branched top of the central post. One large 
mound had thirty-five crushed skeletons in it. They are also 
found in the southeastern part of the Mississippi Valley 
and extend to Canada, following the Mississippi with its 
tributaries, and especially the Ohio. 

The Cahokia region around East St. Louis, Illinois, has 
a number of mounds, the chief of which is the great Cahokia 
Mound, Monk’s Mound, which may have had a temple or 
temples on its flat top, which was four hundred and fifty feet 
long and two hundred feet wide. It is supposed that religious 
festivals or meetings were held on this mound, which is 
considered by some writers as partly natural. Doctor W. K. 
Moorehead, of the University of Illinois, studied these in 
19ZzI and 1922 and found them artificial. “The Origin of 
the Cahokia Mounds,” by Doctor A. R. Crook, in the Bulle- 
tin of the Illinois State Museum, is the very latest word on 
that subject to date, May, 1922. 

The Altar Mounds were peculiar, and formed of several 


6 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


distinct layers of sand and dirt heaped over a baked center 
on the ground, of burned bodies or articles belonging to 
some person. A small mound was placed over it and then 
several layers placed over this. Beneath these mounds were 
placed the articles to be preserved, though they were gen- 
erally melted. 

In the Burial Mounds, one or more people of prominence 
were buried and many of their goods were buried with 
them, such as spear-heads, arrows, flint knives, stone axes; 
occasionally knives and spears of copper. 

Doctor Frederick Starr, the eminent anthropologist of the 
University of Chicago, is of the opinion that the present 
Indians are descendants of the original Mound Builders 
and that the following types of mounds are characteristic 
of these Indians: | 

The Animal Mounds of Wisconsin, some of which are 
several hundred feet in length, he attributes to the ancestors 
of the Winnebagoes. | 

The Cherokees he considers as the builders of the regular 
Ohio Valley Mounds, while the Shawnees may be the de- 
scendants of the Stone Grave people. These stone graves 
were very striking. The makers dug a grave and lined it 
with pieces of flat stones, generally limestone or sandstone, 
all put together with skill and almost perfectly tight. 

Doctor Blatchley, in the geologic report of Lake and 
Porter Counties, Indiana, for 1897, states that the Mound 
Builders for many centuries had made this region their 
home, as everything they needed was here; fishes and 
mussels in the streams and lakes; wild fowls by myriads; 
buffalo, deer and game in untold numbers inhabited the 


THE PREHISTORIC PEOPLE ~ - 


prairie, while the beaver, otter and muskrat crowded the 
basins of the Calumet and Kankakee. 7 

On the “sand islands” and high spots of the prairie and 
marsh were their mounds and burial-grounds. ‘Many speci- 
mens were found of ancient bones, and arrow-heads of 
obsidian, like glass, that speaks of commerce with ancient 
Mexico and its volcanoes, just as the finding of copper in 
the mounds of Southern States generally speaks of the Lake 
Superior region. 

In many of the mounds, articles of native copper have 
been found; some apparently cast, though mostly beaten 
out by stone hammers and other tools. Some of these 
copper knives have been tempered as hard as steel, the secret 
for which was lost for many centuries, though it is now 
recovered and is in use. 

One great mass of copper, weighing over six tons, was 
found in the Lake Superior region, eighteen feet under- 
ground, raised on a bench five feet high. From the num- 
ber of heavy stone hammers and other tools found there, 
many people must have been at work. As they were not 
farmers, there must have been some trade established even 
with the tribes down south. An explorer on the Isle Royale, 
Lake Superior, found in 1822 remains of a large town there, 
with tools used for mining copper. Very ancient. 

In the mounds in Wisconsin have been found different 
implements of copper, such as long spear-heads, axes, 
chisels, arrows, etc., often hard tempered. Some have been 
found in the Chicago and Dune region and also all kinds 
of artifacts or things made by these ancient people; for 
example, a chisel of hammered copper three and one-half 


8 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


inches long, one and one-half inches wide and one-fourth of 
an inch thick. This was taken from a wolf’s burrow just 
west of Cedar Lake. 

Other relics that have been taken from mounds in this 
region are great stone axes, spears, hammers, skinners, 
arrows, pestles, rolling pins, awls, ornaments of various 
kinds, vases, pipes and beads. 

Some of the mounds were quite large; the finest group 
was situated near Boone Grove, Porter County, consisting 
of eight mounds, on an area of thirty acres. One of the 
large mounds was about seventy feet across and ten feet 
high. When several of the larger ones were opened in 
1897, no skeletons were found, only ashes and an arrow- 
head. 

The largest mound, one hundred feet in diameter and 
twelve feet high, was examined, and a skeleton was found 
in the center, ten feet from the top, with head pointing to 
the south. Most of it crumbled to dust on removing it. 
No artifacts or relics of any kind were found. 

An extensive group of mounds close to Tremont Sta- 
tion on the South Shore Electric is described by M. T. 
Green and his uncle, John Wheeler, of Tremont. This 
group was crossed by the Valparaiso Road, about one block 
south of Green’s house, and is in the little valley below Frank 
Koskowski’s house, extending from east of Carlson’s house 
past Miss Myer’s house on the west, to the Olson farm, a 
distance of a mile. Skinner says that many mounds have 
been found in the Kankakee region of Porter and Lake 
Counties, as well as farther north. 

Mr. Wheeler, who was born in the old Wheeler house— 
now Carlson’s—on the border of this Mound Valley sixty- 


THE PREHISTORIC PEOPLE 9 


six years ago, and Mr. M. Green, who played on them 
fifty-five years ago, both say at that time there were nearly 
one hundred mounds in the little valley, and this is con- 
firmed by other old settlers. These mounds ranged from 
twenty to fifty feet across and were from six to ten feet 
high. 

Most of these mounds were round, but some were ellipti- 
cal, and from ten to forty feet long. The old settlers called 
these mounds, “Indian graves.” The valley would be 
flooded and the water would freeze in winter; and Mr. 
Green said that in skating, the mounds, all of which had 
trees on them, made capital resting places. Much of Mound 
Valley was then covered' with trees. 

Green, when a boy, wished to see what was in the mounds, 
and excavated one. He found part of a skeleton, the skull 
apparently pointed toward the center; this crumbled into 
dust upon exposure to the air. A number of stone arrow- 
heads, knives, hammers and pieces of pottery were obtained ; 
also the remains of a long steel knife with bone handle were 
found. When he drew it out, the blade fell entirely to rust, 
and nearly all of the bone handle likewise crumbled. This 
looks like a later burial. Much of the soil of the mounds 
was reddish. 

In the course of time many of these mounds were dug 
into by people and the contents appropriated. The mounds 
were leveled by the plow as the space was needed for farm- 
ing, and the contents scattered. Most of them had all kinds 
of stone relics. Few steel knives were found. 

In the spring of 1917, Mrs. Brennan, Mr. Green and 
myself visited Mr. Koskowski, the owner of that part 
of Mound Valley west of the Valparaiso Road, and in- 


10 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


spected the sites of various mounds, especially the large one 
about forty feet across. We noticed that the sandy ground 
there was more reddish than the surrounding soil. No 
artifacts or relics were found in the soil, as they had been 
removed long before. Remains on Carlson’s farm were 
also inspected. 


CHAPTER II 
THE AMERICAN INDIANS 


THe American Indians differed from one another in 
language, stature, color and habits, the most civilized be- 
ing the Troquois, who had progressed so far as to have 
settled towns, with rows of apartment-houses, one story 
high, called “long houses,” fruit trees, gardens, etc. The 
most progressive of the Algonquin tribes were the Chip- 
pewas, or according to the Indian name, Ojibwas; of which 
the other name is a corruption. They had also the largest 
territory, and may have been the first arrivals from the 
West that Doctor Parker mentions. 

This tribe was one of the very oldest in America, and 
became noted for its intelligence, especially on account of 
its literature. Hiawatha was an Ojibwa or Chippewa, and 
Longfellow made use of these remarkable legends. The 
Chippewa language is considered one of the most interesting 
of all the Indian languages, and was spoken by the leading 
Indians of almost every tribe; this is still so in Canada. 
It is also the lingua franca of the Algonquins. It must 
have taken many centuries to develop this literature and 
acquire this commanding position. 

Doctor Rowland B. Orr, the learned Director of the 
Ontario Provincial Museum, says in his article on the Chip- 


I! 


I2 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


pewas in the 1918 Archeological Report, that the Algonquin 
long houses differ but little from those of their hereditary 
enemies across the lake, the Iroquois. These long houses 
were of various sizes, from twenty, and forty feet, to even 
sixty to one hundred feet long and twenty feet broad. 

In building these houses basswood was preferred; the 
bark was taken off in strips from six to nine feet long, then 
pressed flat. The splendid collection of Ojibwa myths and 
legends described in these archeological reports by Colonel 
G. E. Laidlaw, is most interesting and instructive. 

While the ordinary conception is that the Indian brave 
was lazy and the squaw was compelled to do all of the work, 
the truth is that both were workers. The Indian was 
obliged to get animal food, flesh, fowl, and often shell-fish ; 
to get furs and skins for clothing and tents. To fight the 
enemy ; either in defense, to get better hunting lands, or to 
avenge the loss of some brother. All this called for hard 
strenuous labor. 

The squaw was a good housewife, whose heart was in 
her wigwam, whose highest ideal was in taking good care 
of her husband and children. She took great pride in his 
prowess and gladly did all in her power to make her home 
happy. 

She was not only a cook, but also a tailoress, making 
the family clothes; ornamenting them in various ways, 
staining them different colors, by using different plants; 
golden seal and osage orange for yellow; bloodroot for red, 
and butternut husks for brown. She was likewise a gar- 
dener, raising tobacco, corn, beans, squash and pumpkins, 
and she gathered crabapples and nuts. 

She became an expert in making pemmican, that mix- 


THE AMERICAN INDIANS 13 


ture of fine, sun-dried buffalo meat, mixed with delicious 
buffalo fat, and dried berries, very nourishing and kept for 
years without spoiling. When buffalo were not obtainable, 
bear or deer meat was used, but it was not so palatable. 
Buffalo fat was very easily digested, some writers declaring 
they could drink a pint of it without bad results. 

Their houses were built in various styles. The long type 
of house was often made warmer by fastening on furs or 
skins, and the earthen floors likewise were covered with 
them. When winter tents were used, these were made 
warmer by using two or three thicknesses of skins, and 
having a double or triple wide band extending from half- 
way up on the inside to the bottom of the tent and covering 
the floor for some feet, to prevent the cold air from entering. 

Their implements of warfare were mostly made of wood, 
reenforced by sharpened stones of various kinds, generally 
flint, quartz or occasionally obsidian brought from the West. 
Their bows were made of second-growth hickory, ash, oak 
or other hardwood. The ordinary bow was of a single 
piece, but was sometimes made of several pieces, of bone 
or horn lashed together with sinew. 

They had various kinds of arrow-heads, made of stones, 
with shafts of wood; sometimes reeds or canes. Their 
spears were of various types, ranging from a short javelin 
to a long spear for close combat. Their tomahawks were 
of stone, sharpened at the end, with a handle of wood or 
hide. The war-club sometimes had flat edges or was pointed 
at each end. Knives were of flint also. The Indians were 
glad to get steel knives and tomahawks, and very'eager to 
get guns and pistols. 

A scalping knife from the old Indian cemetery, adjoin- 


14 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


ing the eastern part of Jens Jensen Blowout, in which the 
Dunes Pageant was held at Waverly Beach, was dug up by 
the writer several years ago. Upon digging it out of the 
sand, part of the bone handle fell to dust, showing its 
extreme age. The blade is badly rusted. 

Captain Charles H. Robinson, the leading expert on arch- 
zology of the Prairie Club, states that it is identically the 
same pattern as those used by the Indians in the Revolu- 
tionary War and may date from that period. Major Henry 
Lee thinks it was found on Lieutenant Du Quindre’s battle- 
ground, the spot claimed by Du Quindre, near which he 
claimed to have defeated Hamelin and Brady in 1780; but 
as Du Quindre was a fraud, and was not in any fight, that 
claim must be abandoned. 

One weapon, not generally known as being used by our 
American Indians, is the blow-gun. Doctor Orr, in the 
Ontario, Canada, Archaeological Report of 1918, says: 


“The. blow-gun, though once very common, is now, a 
weapon of the past in this province. Morgan describes it as 
a wooden tube six feet long and an inch thick. In the half- 
inch bore was placed a slender dart, two feet long, sharp- 
pointed, and with a ball of thistledown at the base. 

“The dart could be discharged with great accuracy by 
blowing below it in the tube. One of these guns was pre- 
sented to the museum by Mr. Parish, who secured it in the 
interior of British Guiana, and differs only from those de- 
scribed by Morgan, in that cotton was used instead of thistle- 
down, and the sharp point of the dart was dipped in poison.”’ 
(Probably “quiarra.” ) 


Miss Frances Howe speaks of the Indians coming from a 
great distance, even from Northern Michigan and Wis- 


THE AMERICAN INDIANS 15 


consin, to the Dunes for the poison of snakes—rattlers and 
copperheads—and of poisonous plants, which were used in 
making deadly poison; one in which the points of the ar- 
row, and probably the points of slender darts for the blow- 
guns, were dipped; and the other, the “black medicine,” 
very poisonous, was dropped into food or water. 

One loathsome habit the Indians had, and which was the 
occasion of much work and worry on the part of the early 
missionaries, the Jesuit Fathers, was the habit of canni- 
balism. It was much more prevalent in those early days than 
is generally believed at the present time, and early accounts 
speak of it. Prisoners captured in war were often killed 
and eaten. Parkman speakes of the naked Indian cannibals. 

When Langlade, about 1752, made his famous march 
with a body of Ottawa warriors from Mackinaw through 
Michigan to Kekionga or Miami Town, now Fort Wayne, 
his force captured the town and the Miami chief, La- 
Demoiselle, as well as some English traders. His men 
killed LaDemoiselle, boiled him and ate him, to the great 
horror of the English traders. This beastly action gave 
such a feeling of disgust to the civilized world, that, ac- 
cording to Bancroft, it was one of the inciting causes of 
the great Seven Years’ War, which included our French 
and Indian War. 

Many records of Indian life from early Colonial times 
have been handed down to the author from his relatives 
who have met Indians from Plymouth to Philadelphia, and 
sometimes have been obliged to battle with them, and this 
account of their cannibalism is part of the record. A beau- 
tiful and exceedingly rare Indian club was given to an 
ancestor, Colonel Sebastian Bauman of New York, the 


16 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Father of American Artillery, by a Mohawk chief, about 
1760. An old Sioux chief, Seven Mountains, nearly a hun- 
dred years old, who saw this lately in the Brennan collection 
of old family relics, at the Chicago Historical Society, ex- 
pressed great surprise and pleasure at it, and said he had not 
seen one like it since he was a young man, and that it be- 
longed to some great medicine man and chief. No ordinary 
chief was allowed to have one like it. Charles F. Gunther, 
the historical collector, said he thought it came originally 
from the Pacific Islands. That might explain its bis. and 
possibly its religious character. 

Another relative, Captain John Atswood, iikeistene of 
Milford, New Haven Colony, was one of the commissioners 
from New Haven to the New England Confederation in 
1643, which, was formed to protect the colonists against the 
Indians. Other relatives settling at Plymouth, 1620, Bos- 
ton, 1630, Newark, New Jersey, in 1666, along the Hud- 
son River, in New York and in Pennsylvania, from 1700 to 
1760, lived in Indian territory for many generations, and 
knew them and their habits thoroughly. 

‘Most of this information handed down from old Colonial 
and Revolutionary relatives has been found to be reliable. 

Before Marquette came to the Chicago Dune region in 
1675, the Illinois Indians occupied the greater part of the 
Illinois and Indiana region, especially around Lake Michi- 
gan and also held much territory along the Illinois River. 
Their trail along Michigan Avenue to One Hundred 
Twenty-seventh Street, thence to Blue Island, thence south- 
west to old Kaskaskia, is called the Illini Trail. 

They were gradually forced south by the Miamis, and 
when Marquette came in 1675, the Weas, a branch of the 


THE AMERICAN INDIANS 17 


Miamis, occupied the Chicago and Dune region, while the 
head tribe of the Miamis, the Twight Weas or Crane 
Miamis, had their headquarters at Kekionga, now Fort 
Wayne, at the Maumee-Wabash Portage. A large and 
noted village of these Crane Miamis was later located at 
Maramech, Illinois, near Elgin, on the Fox River. 

The Weas were gradually forced south along the lower 
Wabash by the Pottawottomies, who followed the Miamis 
down the Wisconsin shore of Lake Michigan, and occupied 
the lake region from Milwaukee to St. Joseph, extending 
inland for some distance. The Ottawas were north of them 
in Michigan. 

The Kickapoos or Quicapous, who seemed to be related 
to both the Pottawottomies and Ottawas, began to work 
their way into Illinois from the Northwest in 1675; both 
they and the Illinois had come from Iowa. The Pottawot- 
tomies were first mentioned in the book, Jesmt Relations, 
1640, as being located on the north bank of Lake Huron. 

Among the Indians who came to the Dune Region were 
the Hurons and the Iroquois. The Iroquois Confederacy, 
called by themselves the Ongwehonwe, or “Superior Men,” 
was a confederation of Indian tribes living in New York 
and Canada, formed for protection against the Algonquin 
Indians who surrounded them on all sides. The Y-endots 
(Wyandots), or Hurons as the French called them, on 
account of their peculiar head-dress, belonged to a tribe of 
the Iroquoian stem; but through some difference of feeling, 
they and their cousins, the Eries, did not wish to join with 
them, and moved to the western part of Upper Canada near 
Georgian Bay, where they became independent tribes. 
The Hurons may have been the first of. the Iroquoin tribes 


18 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


to come up north, and may have become very friendly— 
perhaps intermarried—with the Algonquins, and so had a 
kindly feeling toward them. Hence their refusal to combine 
against them. The other Iroquoian tribes, the Mohawks, 
Cayugas, Oneidas, Onondagas and Senaca tribes formed a 
highly organized confederation, 1572, and called themselves 
the Five Nations. 

They had a highly organized federal government consist- 
ing of a grand council of fifty chiefs, an unequal number 
from each tribe, who formed a regular council, making and 
executing the laws for its government. Their constitution 
stated that their main object was to abolish war and murder; 
to spread their principles and territory by peaceful expan- 
sion and for all the Indian tribes to adopt their principles 
and live peaceably. Their plan of expansion was much like 
that of Mahomet; ‘The Koran or the Sword.” The Iro- 
quois were at first southern Indians, and were more civilized 
than the Algonquins. They were farmers as well as 
hunters, and built community houses, planted crops and 
fruit trees. At first they were peaceable, but were thrashed 
so often by the Algonquins that they combined together 
for protection. 

For many years they were noted for their excessive 
cruelty and bloodshed. They had, at an early date, received 
guns from the Dutch of New York with whom they were 
very friendly. They then organized raids upon the Indian 
tribes, ranging from the Abnakis of Maine to the tribes 
bordering on the Mississippi, and from the Hurons and 
Ottawas of Canada to the Cherokees of the South. It is 
possible that there was an admixture of white blood in 
them, as they came from Southeastern United States. 


THE AMERICAN INDIANS 19 


Their plan of confederacy shows a knowledge of govern- 
ment that is surprising. 

They thought nothing of a raid on a tribe one thousand 
miles away. To them, distance was nothing. They raided 
the Ottawas in Canada, the Foxes in Wisconsin, the Hurons 
around Georgian Bay, and the Cherokees in the South. 

The Hurons lived in Canada, and as they would not join 
the [roquois Confederation, a separation took place, in 1572, 
the Hurons moving to the West, along the ancient route 
from the Ottawa River to Lake Huron via the Lake Nipis- 
sing route. This route has been very accurately described by 
Doctor R. B. Orr in the article on the Hurons in his Arche- 
ological Report of 1920. 

They were gradually driven west by the Iroquois until 
they were located around the shore of Lake Huron which 
was named after them by Champlain. Their original name 
as given by the Iroquois was a variant form of Wyandotte, 
spelled by different writers in many different ways. They 
called themselves “Ouendats.” 

They were called, by the Llroquois, Quadoche; also 
Quatoghie. In various old maps of the eighteenth century 
the region of the Sand Dunes was marked as Quadoche and 
was a puzzle for many years, as it was not known whether 
it referred to the Dune Region or to the people who in- 
habited the Dune Region. As the Huron Country was 
often spoken of as Huronia, so the region of the Dunes 
must have taken its Indian name, Quadoche, from the 
Huron people. 

This region had been claimed as part of their dominion 
by the Iroquois. When they gave up their title to this 
Chicago Dune region to Great Britain, they gave their 


ZO THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


western limits as the Chicago Portage; and at a later treaty 
as the Grand Calumet at the foot of Lake Michigan. They 
stated that Quadoche was their name for the Hurons. 
Charlevoix, the great missionary, who traveled through this 
Chicago Dune country in 1721, says that the real name of 
these Indians is Y-endot (Wyandot) which with its vari- 
ant spellings of Wyandot, Wyandotte, Ouiendot, and 
Guyandotte, trends back into the old Quadoche, Y-endot, 
and Ouendat. 

The name of Hurons was given to them by Champlain, 
who, looking upon these barbarians with their hair clipped 
short and rising from their heads in a peculiar fashion 
which gave them a frightful appearance, exclaimed on first 
meeting them, “Quelles Hures!’ (‘What boar heads!) 
Since then the French call them Hurons. The Ottawas, 
who lived next to the Hurons, also had their heads dressed 
in a somewhat similar crest and were called by Champlain, 
Raised Hairs. 

This nickname appealed to the French so strongly that 
they gradually forgot the old name, Y-endot, Quadoche or 
Wyandot, and spoke of them continually as Hurons. 

The Iroquois drove the Hurons, as well as the Ottawas, 
to the West, and the Hurons gradually moved to the lower 
part of Michigan. For some time, they stayed around the 
Dunes and the northern part of Indiana and Northeastern 
Illinois, but soon the Miamis began to press on them and 
they gradually moved to Eastern Indiana and finally into 
Ohio where they were called Wyandots, but were gradually 
known to the settlers as Mingos. While in Ohio, during 
the latter part of the eighteenth century and in the nine- 
teenth century, they do not seem to have been persecuted so 


THE AMERICAN INDIANS 21 


much by their kinsmen, the Six Nations, as they were 
before. 

There were five tribes that made up the Iroquois Con- 
federacy, which was then known as the Five Nations; the 
Mohawks, the Senecas, the Cayugas, the Onondagas and 
the Oneidas. They remained so for many years until, in 
1712, a branch of the family called the Tuscaroras, from 
North Carolina, applied for admission to the Confederacy, 
which was granted, and they became known as the Six 
Nations. This confederacy lasted for over two hundred 
years and is still in existence. 


CHAPTER III 
THE FRENCH OCCUPATION 


THis Chicago Dune region was most admirably suited to 
these early settlers. Not only were their primitive wants 
supplied, but they also lived on what later became the great 
routes of travel from the North to the South, the East to 
the West. The people from the South began to come up 
the [linois River and passed through the Chicago or Calu- 
met Portage to Lake Michigan, and thence to the Great 
Lakes, returning the same way. 

The southern shore of Lake Michigan also became known 
as the great highway for those who wished to explore the 
country east or west. As the country from the Atlantic 
to the Mississippi and beyond was an almost solid mass of 
forests, people located on bodies of water or on rivers, 
where there was an abundance of food and a chance to 
move about more freely. 

The first white explorer in the interior of Canada was 
Cartier in 1534. The greatest was Champlain, who ex- 
plored nearly all Southern Canada. Then came the fur- 
traders, who went everywhere. Close after the fur-traders 
came the missionaries, mainly Jesuits. History furnishes 
no nobler examples of heroism and devotion to duty than 
were performed by these priests. Some were killed out- 


22 


)? THE FRENCH OCCUPATION 23 


right and eaten; some tortured and burned at the stake. But 
still they came, until by their bravery, fortitude and ability to 
stand privation and suffering, they won the respect, then 
the admiration, and finally the love of the Indians. 

The first priests who visited the Chicago Dune region 
were Fathers Allouez and Dablon. These missionaries were 
here as early as 1672. 

Father Dablon succeeded Allouez as the superior general 
of the Mission of the Lakes, and inspected the various 
missions. He, as well as Allouez, was often in this region 
along the southern shore of Lake Michigan. 

The most famous of all these missionaries is Marquette. 
Born in France, in 1635, of an excellent family, he early 
began to plan for a religious life, and came to America in 
1661. After serving in Canada for several years as a mis- 
sionary, and learning the language of various Indian tribes, 
he was sent to the Mission of the Lakes, on Lake Superior. 
While preaching to them, he heard much of a great river 
which he thought would lead to the South Sea. 

In 1673 an expedition was formed under the command 
of a famous trader, Louis Joliet, who had studied to be a 
priest, but had not completed his course; with him was 
Marquette, who was sent to preach the gospel to all people 
they would meet. They went through the Fox River, made 
the portage to the Wisconsin River, and then floated down 
to the Mississippi, the first white men to record having 
seen it since De Soto. haa 

There is no doubt that hunters and fur-traders had visited 
the Mississippi before this, as it has been spoken of as a 
well-known river before Marquette and Joliet had started 
on their trip. They went down the river below where De 


24 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Soto had been buried, and then returned by way of the 
shorter route through the Illinois River and the Chicago 
Portage to Lake Michigan. 

At an Indian village on the Fox River, they were received 
by the warriors of the Kickapoos, the Mascoutins and the 
Miamis. Marquette found here a large cross standing in 
the middle of the village. He also relates that near Alton 
they saw on a high bluff two awful monsters. 


“As we coasted along rocks, frightful for their height and 
length, we saw two monsters painted on these rocks, which 
startled us at first and on which the boldest Indian dare not 
gaze long. They are as large as a calf, with horns on the 
head like a deer; a frightful look, red eyes, bearded like a 
tiger, the face somewhat like a man’s, the body covered with 
scales, and the tail so long that it twice makes the turn of 
the body, passing over the head and down between the legs, 
and ending at last in a fish’s tail. This is pretty nearly the 
figures of these monsters as I drew it off.” 


This monster was called the piasa bird, though Jacob 
Piatt Dunn, the scholarly Secretary of the Indiana Histori- 
cal Society, declares the correct name is paisa bird (pro-. 
nounced pah-é-say). He says: “There is no such word as- 
piasa in the Illinois language. The rocky bluff on which 
the pictograph was made was called Pai’sa Rock by the 
Hlinois Indians, and Paisa was one of the little people, 
corresponding to our elves, spirits, etc. The monster is a 
representation of the Manito of the water, and is called the 
Man-Cat by the Miamis.” 

The article, “The Piasa Bird,” by Clara Kern Bayliss, in 
The Illinois Historical Society Proceedings for 1908, is 





Courtesy of Ontario Provincial Museum 


MARQUETTE, THE WARRIOR OF THE CRoss 


ae 





THE FRENCH OCCUPATION 25 


very interesting, for she deals with the myths about this 
“thunder-bird.” The piasa myth was very popular with the 
Chicago Dune Indians, and was often told to the white ex- 
plorers and settlers here. 

It was supposed to feed on human flesh as well as ani- 
mals, and was finally destroyed through the bravery of a 
young warrior who had himself fastened to some strong 
stakes in front of the monster’s cave. When the latter 
returned from its long flight, he discovered the warrior, 
and tried to carry him off to his cave, but the monster be- 
came entangled in the thongs, and the other warriors killed 
it with poisoned arrows. 

It would seem that there is better ground for this tradi- 
tion than just a myth. Some writers think that this myth 
is based upon the predatory habits of the eagles and their 
screaming defiance. 

However, much interest has been caused by the Aeenere 
of that ancient cemetery of prehistoric animals and birds,— 
the La Brea asphalt pits—near Los Angeles, California. 
Many bones of different animals, birds and reptiles have 
been found there. One striking find recently was that of 
the almost entire skeleton of a gigantic bird, the Teratorms, 
which means “‘monster bird,” and is called the giant vulture. 

It is much larger than the condor, and must have been 
able to carry off a large animal; the large bones of the wing 
indicate that the spread when fully feathered must have been 
between eighteen and twenty feet. 

There is no doubt that this “terror of the air,” that evi- 
dently lived in ancient days, when the mastodon, cave bear 
and saber-toothed tiger lived, and whose bones are found in 


20 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


~ the same pit, exacted toll from every kind of animal it could 
master; and, like the present condor, did not confine its 
menu to dead bodies, but captured the living also. 

This California giant vulture is not known to have lived 
until recent times, when man appeared upon the earth; but, 
in this same asphalt pit, this natural trap, were also found 
the bones, almost the entire skeleton, of a female human 
being. 

Doctor Arles Hrdlicka, of the Smithsonian Institution, 
thinks they are much later than the bones of this giant 
vulture and the other animals; Doctor Merriam, of the Uni- 
versity of California, thinks they might be of the same age. 
[t is impossible to determine this. Man may have been on 
the American Continent much longer than some of our 
anthropologists, who pin their faith to the immigration from 
Siberia alone, will acknowledge. 

The prehistoric natives of the most ancient days in this 
California region may have seen some lingering specimen 
of this great bird, or a connecting link between that and 
the present California vulture. If not, they may have seen 
the bones of the giant vulture, for it seems absurd to think 
that the bones of the bird recently found in the La Brea 
asphalt pit are the only ones ever seen. 

Even the sight of such a giant skeleton should have been 
sufficient to arouse the wonderment and fear of the primi- 
tive people and Indians, who have such a wealth of folk- 
lore about animate nature; for here is a physical basis for 
their belief in the thunder-bird, or as the Miamis call it, 
the man-cat. 

As the Indians migrated eastward to various places, they 
undoubtedly took with them the story, with embellishments, 


THE FRENCH OCCUPATION 27 


of this giant vulture, which ranged in those very ancient 
days along the Pacific coast. 

The Miamis, who were first found by the French in Wis- 
consin, say that when they first came east of the Mississippi, 
they lived at Alton, Illinois, and they and the Mitchigamies, 
one of the Illinois tribes, whose earlier habitat was evidently 
the shores of Lake Michigan, used to fight, and that while 
they were at one time in battle the two thunder-birds 
swooped down on them and each one captured a Miami 
chieftain and carried him away to its cave. 

The others were all so startled and discouraged that 
they could not fight, and the Mitchigamies defeated them 
badly. The Miamis then retreated to Wisconsin, where 
Marquette later saw them, and from which they retreated 
later to the southern part of Lake Michigan to escape the 
Iroquois. They then crowded out the Illinois; also the 
Hurons, who moved away from the Dunes toward the 
south and east into Ohio. 

This piasa bird, therefore, seems to be of historic as 
well-as of poetic derivation, and it certainly left a deep 
impress on Marquette and Joliet, as it has upon all of the 
Indian tribes of America. 

On his way up the Illinois River, Marquette stopped at 
the Indian village at Kaskaskia, near Starved Rock, where 
he preached to the natives and established a mission. Mar- 
quette was pleased to find that some of these [linois Indians 
were among those who had been at his mission at Lake 
Superior. 

Historians disagree as to which portage he used on his 
homeward trip, the Chicago Portage or the Calumet Portage. 
The Chicago Portage favored those who came down the 


28 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


west coast of Lake Michigan, as there is a strong southerly 
current there which turns north on the east side. The 
Calumet Portage would favor those going northward be- 
cause the current would help them. 

The fact that a portage was worn through the marsh 
between the Little Calumet, near the mouth of Lake Calu- 
met, and the Grand Calumet at Hegewisch shows that it 
must have been used a great deal, and is so put down in 
the early maps, such as Hutchin’s in 1778, Andrew’s in 
1782 and General Hull’s in 1812. 

Mr. Daniel Kelly, of Valparaiso, an eminent lawyer, has 
a relic that speaks of the early missionaries. It is the silver 
lid of a small lavorium or baptismal font, used by the priest 
to baptize new members, and was found in the dried-up bed 
of the old mouth of the Grand Calumet River at Miller. 
This lid is about three inches long and two inches in width, 
is semicircular in form, and has on it the image of a lamb, 
the Agnus Det, or Lamb of God. 

Mr. Kelly consulted several authorities, even sending the 
lavorium to Paris. He was told that it was evidently made 
in the sixteenth century. Another piece of lavorium was 
found near the same spot some years before by Father 
Goodman, who sent it to the Paris Historical Society. 
These things show that the Calumet was used by early 
explorers to a great extent. The Grand Calumet and Little 
Calumet Rivers flow through great marshes which were so 
extensive and at times so flooded that the early French 
explorers, hunters and travelers said it very much resembled 
the Louisiana Country. 

Marquette wrote a letter, with a map, to his superior gen- 
eral, Father Dablon, which has been preserved. Joliet, who 


THE FRENCH OCCUPATION 29 


had been in command of the expedition, was bringing a 
very full account of it, together with maps and other papers, 
to Frontenac, Governor of New France, but his canoe was 
overturned in the La Chine or Chinese Rapids near Mon- 
treal, and his crew and the papers were lost. He saved his 
life through his skill as a swimmer. 

In 1674, Marquette again went forth to preach the gospel 
to the Illinois Indians. After great suffering, he reached 
the Chicago River in December and his men built a rude 
cabin about two leagues up the river. Here he stayed all 
winter. In the spring, he went to the Illinois and again 
preached to the Indians. Feeling himself failing rapidly, 
he wished to die at his home mission at St. Ignace on Lake 
Superior. 

The Indians, at the village of Kaskaskia, sent men along 
to take care of him. They reached the Chicago Portage, 
passed through it to Lake Michigan, went to the east and 
up the eastern shore. It is most probable, that on this 
trip, with Marquette dying, they took him by the easiest 
route. This was via the Sag and the Calumet Rivers and no 
more difficult than the one by the Chicago River, and it 
saved over forty miles of lake travel, which in the mis- 
sionary’s condition meant a great deal. The South Bend 
historians think he came up the Kankakee, used the portage 
and took the St. Joe to Lake Michigan. 

As he journeyed, he stopped frequently and took shelter 
in the different creeks and rivers that pierced the Dunes, 
camping there overnight and also in bad weather. He 
preached often to the Indians, and camped on the shores of 
the Calumet River, Fort Creek, Trail Creek,—the Riviere 
du Chemin,—St. Joe and others. 


30 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


It is stated by Mr. Coughlan, who heard it from the In- 
dians, that when Marquette stopped at Trail Creek, a dele- 
gation of Indians who had heard him preach before met him 
and begged him to come up to their village a short distance 
away. He did so and found that they had a village in a 
most beautiful grove and plateau called Council Grove, 
which now belongs to ex-Mayor Martin T. Krueger of 
Michigan City and is a part of his Springland Farm. 

On the western slope of this historic plateau is a spring, 
which Marquette blessed, and which the Indians called Mar- 
quette Spring. or many years, this was the Mecca of the 
Indian tribes, who came for miles to get the water of that 
spring, which they said was ““good medicine.” 

Marquette was so worn out by his strenuous activities 
that he died before he reached St. Ignace, in 1675, and was 
buried near Ludington, Michigan. A large red cedar cross 
was erected over the grave. Later his bones were removed 
to his mission at St. Ignace on Lake Superior, but the cross 
was left. It was gradually covered by the sands, but in 
1818, Gurdon $. Hubbard, the Chicago fur-trader, discov- 
ered it sticking two feet out of the sand. He repaired it 
but it was soon covered and was not seen again until a few 
years ago, when it was found almost free of the sand and 
again restored. 

A relic that might speak of Marquette, Allouez, or Dab- 
lon is in the collection of the author. Blanchard states that 
in 1696 a mission was established on the Calumet. This 
relic is a small stone Bible nearly three inches long, two 
inches wide, and an inch thick, which was dug up two feet 
underground at the corner of Wentworth Avenue and One 
Hundred Eleventh Street, Chicago, on the shore of the 


THE FRENCH OCCUPATION Sr 


Wentworth Avenue Creek, which formerly flowed into the 
Calumet River at Clark Street. 

This stone is cut into the shape of a little Bible and is a 
relic of the early missionaries, one of whom may have lost | 
it here in the early times, as this section.was very much 
frequented by the early explorers and missionaries, since it 
was only a few blocks from the great Illini Trail at Michi- 
gan Avenue. The trail on One Hundred Eleventh Street 
was a natural highway to the West, as it cuts through the 
western hills near Summit, striking the Sauk Trail. 

During the many hardships of the early missionaries, 
the printed Bibles were often destroyed; as a symbol of 
their faith, a stone Bible, small so as not to be too burden- 
some, was used. 

Another relic of early times, found near the same place, 
is a heavy steel battle-ax. It seems to be a relic of the 
Spanish Expedition of 1781. This battle-ax was found 
about forty years ago on a farm near One Hundred Eighth 
Street and Wabash Avenue near the Illini Trail on Michigan 
Avenue, Chicago. It is made from a bar of steel, hand- 
forged, of a most beautiful pattern, and with its curved 
handle, originally hung from a belt. The end of the handle 
was so much worn that it slipped from its belt. These 
articles show that this region was traversed by both mis- 
sionaries and explorers. 


CHAPTER IV 
FERDINAND LA SALLE 


THE greatest of all French explorers was La Salle, one 
of the most heroic and most unfortunate men in history, a 
man to whose genius France has been indebted for her com- 
manding position in America. He, like Marquette, had heard 
of the Great River that perhaps flowed into the Great Sea 
or Pacific Ocean. But by his explorations in the Great Lake 
region he became convinced, even before Marquette and 
Joliet returned from their first voyage, that it flowed into 
the Gulf of Mexico. 

La Salle is chiefly known to us as an explorer, a leader 
and a statesman. But he was chiefly known in New France 
as the great fur-trader. When his keen vision saw the great 
value of a chain of forts reaching from Fort Frontenac to 
the mouth of the Mississippi River to hold the country for 
France, King Louis XIV told him he could build them, but 
it was at his own expense; therefore La Salle was appointed 
as the head of the fur-traders. To do this took money, and 
for a number of years La Salle was the most active fur- 
trader in New France, trading with the Canadians and the 
western and southern Indians, and punishing free traders, 
thus creating many enemies. He was a man with a vision. 
He was the John Jacob Astor of his time. He traded every- 


32 


FERDINAND LA SALLE 33 


where and thus acquired an intimate knowledge of the 
Chicago Dune region, for it was one of his best hunting- 
grounds. 

In 1677 he started for the Illinois country, making the 
portage from the St. Joseph River to the Kankakee River 
near South Bend. This portage was very much traveled and 
started up the hill from the St. Joseph River at the exact 
spot where the targets of the Indiana State Rifle Range are 
now situated. The trail goes through the cemetery and 
the path upon which the little concrete building containing 
the targets is placed is the old original Portage Trail that 
La Salle followed in going to the Kankakee. 

After great hardships La Salle reached the [linois coun- 
try. Some of his men from Canada joined him with a re- 
port that his new vessel, the Griffin, had been wrecked and 
everything lost. He built a fort, that he named Creve Coeur 
or Broken Heart, on the banks of the Illinois near Peoria, 
and placed Tonty in charge of it. Tonty was an Italian, 
who had lost his right hand in battle in Europe, and to take 
its place he had a powerful iron hand made, which he could 
use very efficiently. The French sometimes called him Main 
de Fer or Iron Hand, which the Indians readily took up and 
called him exclusively. 

LaSalle then with a few other men started to walk back 
to Montreal, a distance of twelve hundred miles. As he 
speaks of having been chilled by the breezes off Lake Michi- 
gan, he must have passed through the Chicago Dune region 
on his long walk. He probably took the Illini Trail up to 
Michigan Avenue and One Hundred Twenty-seventh Street, 
thence followed the old Pottawottomie Trail through River- 
dale, Tolleston, Miller, along the Beach or the Dunes to 


34 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Michigan City, then east to Detroit and to Montreal. He 
only reached it after terrible privations and sufferings. 

He heard later that some of his men had blown up the 
fort and were on their way back to Canada; he intercepted 
them and hanged them. He again went to the Illinois 
country, and found that the Illinois Indians had been badly 
defeated in 1680 by the Iroquois, and all their villages de- 
stroyed. He then went down the Illinois River and sailed 
some distance on the Mississippi, finally going back to the 
Illinois country and establishing a trading post there, Fort 
St. Louis, on Starved Rock. 

Here he organized a great confederation to combat the 
Iroquois who were steadily extending their power west- 
ward and who claimed jurisdiction to the Mississippi River. 
This confederation of the Illinois, Miamis, Pottawottomies, 
Ottawas, Hurons, Kickapoos, Shawnees, Mohicans, and 
parts of other tribes was successful in holding the Iroquois 
in check. But when La Salle was killed in Louisiana by one » 
of his soldiers, the confederation broke up like a house of 
cards—exactly like the great Indian Alliance of Major De 
Linctot in the Revolution—and each tribe sought safety 
either in his own territory or by combining with others. 

As the Miamis were very much exposed to the incursions 
of the Iroquois, who often came to the Dunes, they founded 
a Miami Confederacy composed of all the different branches 
of the Miami tribe, and for years this was a force to keep 
the Iroquois from attacking them. 

La Salle in his last voyage from France came to New 
France via Louisiana. His admiral was very unruly, and 
missing the Mississippi River, landed La Salle in Texas. He 
stayed there for two years; not because he was lost, but 


FERDINAND LA SALLE 35 


because he had other plans, one of which may have been to 
capture the silver mines of Northern Mexico. Some tradi- 
tions might indicate that, for Spain and France were un- 
friendly at the time. He was too great a traveler to stay 
lost in that corner, since he could easily have made his way 
north. Apparently he was biding his time, or waiting for 
orders from the French government. When no aid came 
from France, and his men began to desert and mutiny, he 
realized his powerlessness, and started north to his colony, 
but was murdered on the way by one of his men. 

After La Salle’s death, the French realized what a great 
man he was, and the worth of his plans for saving the 
country for France. 

The French now carried out his idea of a great chain of 
forts at strategic points to command New France, and also 
to act as centers for the fur trade. These forts became the 
nuclei of small settlements, and were surrounded by woods 
that stretched in an almost solid mass from the Atlantic 
coast to the Great Plains, broken only by lakes, marshes, and 
the numerous spider-like threads of creeks and rivers which 
for ages were used as means of travel. 

As communities of both the Indians and later the whites 
were established, trails from one to the other were gradually 
made through the woods, and these were used as the routes 
of land travel. Portages were sought to make travel easier. 
The principal ones in the Chicago Dune region were the 
Chicago-Desplaines Portage, the Calumet-Sag, the Little 
Calumet to the Grand Calumet at Hegewisch, and Lake 
Michigan to the Calumet River at Dune Park. The other 
principal portages were the Fox-Wisconsin Portage in Wis- 
consin, the St. Joe-Kankakee Portage near South Bend, the 


36 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Maumee-Wabash Portage at Kekionga (Fort Wayne), and 
the Erie-Allegheny Portage in Pennsylvania. 

In the early part of the eighteenth century, the Fox In- 
dians became angry at the French, because the latter had 
sold guns to the Sioux, which enabled them to whip the 
Foxes in battle. In retaliation, the Foxes closed the Fox- 
Wisconsin Portage to the French for nearly forty years, 
compelling them to take a southern route. The northern 
route from Quebec and Montreal lay through the Ottawa- 
Nipissing-Georgian Bay. Thence to Mackinaw, and the 
Wisconsin River. The southern portages were the Chicago, 
Calumet, St. Joe and the Maumee-Wabash or Kekionga 
Portages. 

This diversion of routes caused the French explorers, 
traders and officials to take the most convenient, which was 
said to be the Maumee-Wabash route, the portage being 
controlled at Kekionga, or Fort Wayne. 

The Governor of New France, desirous of having the 
Miamis together, gave those at the noted village, Maramech, 
near Aurora, peremptory orders to move to Kekionga, 
where they could protect that portage. In their eastward 
journey, they pushed the Hurons, or Wyandots, from their 
Duneland home to the southeast, and occupied this land 
themselves, until in turn they were pushed out by the Potta- 
wottomies, who occupied the southern shore of Lake 
Michigan. 

The Fox Indians in the meantime were faring ill; from a 
great, powerful tribe, their prowess was diminishing. In 
1712, they, with some Mascoutins, marched from Wiscon- 
sin, following the shore of the Lake, through our beautiful 
Dunes, to besiege Detroit, which was then a fort with few 


FERDINAND LA SALLE a7 


houses. The French were assisted by the Miamis and other 
tribes, and defeated the Fox and Mascoutins who retreated 
through the Dunes on their homeward trip. 

The Iroquois, though they also hated the French, were 
greatly enraged at the Foxes for daring to come into their 
territory, as the Iroquois claimed all of the land to the 
Mississippi River and considered this a great insult. After 
minor skirmishes for several years, the Iroquois in the 
snowy winter of 1721-22 decided to attack the Foxes so 
fiercely and unexpectedly as to strike terror into them. 

Accordingly, in 1721, a picked body of Iroquois warriors, 
numbering a hundred, started from New York to attack 
the village of the Foxes, in Wisconsin, at the Fox-Wisconsin 
Portage, a trip of over six hundred miles. As the winter 
was very snowy, they were compelled to use snow-shoes, in 
the use of which they were experts. 

It was a fearful journey. They came through the Dunes, 
along the lake front and past the present Beach House of 
the Prairie Club. When they reached Chicago, a number of 
the warriors were so exhausted from the terrible trip and 
the fast pace, that they were left behind to rest and recuper- 
ate, to be picked up on the return trip of the main party. 

The others—fierce, rugged warriors and wonderful snow- 
shoemen—rested a while and then started for the Fox 
Portage. They reached it undetected. The Foxes, never 
dreaming of attack, were terrified when this body of fierce 
warriors from the East suddenly burst in upon them, shoot- 
ing, slaying and scalping. 

The Foxes rallied and fought bravely but were taken at 
such a disadvantage they were soon defeated. They fled in 
all directions; but as the Iroquois had snow-shoes and the 


38 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Foxes were caught unawares many were hunted down and 
massacred. | 

The Iroquois, after looting and burning the village, 
started for home well laden with spoils and scalps, and took 
along captives to carry the burdens. On reaching Chicago, 
they rested for a time, and then with the other members 
of the party, who had regained their vigor, they started to 
their eastern home passing through the Dunes. While this 
trip of over one thousand two hundred miles was not so 
long as the mythical trip of the Norsemen from Vinland, 
to Kensington, Minnesota, in 1346, it is the longest trip for 
a large snow-shoe party on record. 

This bloody battle attracted wide attention, and undoubt- 
edly caused the British to curb the western aspirations of 
the Iroquois, since a treaty a few years later made their 
western, boundary the Chicago Portage, as given in 
Mitchell’s map, 1755, of the Chicago Dune region. 

The Foxes were stunned by their defeat. To have that 
band of fierce warriors burst upon them like demons when 
they thought they were over six hundred miles away shat- 
tered their courage, and they sought peace. They and the 
Iroquois, had one thing in common, both hated the French. 
The Foxes therefore not only begged for peace, but also 
asked to be allowed to join the [roquois under the protection 
of the English. 

This was granted, and a large body of Foxes worked 
their way toward the south and settled in the famous old 
Miami town of Maramech, on the Buffalo River, near 
Aurora. This river was named after them, Fox River. 
They intended gradually to work their way eastward to 
join the Iroquois, but the French from Fort Chartres, 


FERDINAND LA SALLE 39 


Illinois, and from Fort St. Joseph, with some Pottawot- 
tomies, Illinois and Miamis, attacked them, and after a 
stubborn battle defeated them very badly, the survivors 
retreating northward. The [Ioxes stayed in Illinois and 
Wisconsin, their power broken. 

The indians of the Chicago Dune region were strongly in 
sympathy with the French, and were protected by them 
from the Iroquois marauders. Fort St. Joseph was built 
to protect their fur trade, as well as to command a strategic 
point, and a smaller fort, very strong, was built near the 
mouth of a little river at Tremont, Indiana, and called 
Petite Fort—Little Fort. It was a stockade fort, what the 
French call a tassement or palisaded blockhouse. While 
occupied mainly as a trading post, the name Petite Fort 
showed that it was at times garrisoned by regular military. 

When war broke out between France and England in 
1754, the Indians of the Chicago Dune region sided with 
France strongly and sent volunteers to Fort Du Quesne, and 
later to Canada to help the French. The Pottawottomies, 
Miamis, Kickapoos, Ottawas and many others took vigorous 
part against the British. They were very much grieved 
when the French were defeated and New France was ceded 
to Great Britain, as the French and Indians got along well 
together, sometimes intermarrying. 

The Miamis, in the meantime, kept shifting to the south- 
east so that the Weas by 1765 had moved from Chicago and 
the Dunes to Ouia, above Vincennes. 

The other families of the Miamis moved eastward into 
lower Indiana and along the border. The Pottawottomies 
had followed the Miamis and occupied the shores of Lake 
Michigan from Milwaukee around the lake to St. Joseph, 


40 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


and extended inward for some distance; the Ottawas were 
a little north of them in Michigan. 

The Kickapoos had begun, in 1675, to work their way 
into Illinois from the northwest; both they and the Illinois 
tribes had come from the west, from Iowa. The Potta- 
wottomies were first mentioned in the Jesmt Relations in 
1640 as being located on the north bank of Lake Huron. 
In 1668 they were on the west bank of Lake Michigan. 

The Chicago Dune region was formerly one of the fav- 
ored localities of the [linois Indians when they were in 
possession of this territory. The trail leading from the 
Chicago River on State Street down Vincennes Avenue to 
South Englewood, then southeast to State Street and 
Ninety-third, then south through Michigan Avenue to One 
Hundred Twenty-seventh Street, west to Blue Island and 
thence southwest, was the old Illini Trail used by Illinois 
Indians coming from their home town of Kaskaskia, and 
leading all the way up along the west shore of Lake Michi- 
gan to the northern part of Michigan. The name given 
to Lake Michigan by Marquette was Lac Illinois. 

After the end of the French and Indian War, Pontiac, 
chief of the Ottawas, refused to be bound by the surrender 
of New France by the French government and tried to raise 
a great Indian conspiracy to kill the English. He accord- 
ingly captured Mackinaw, which was taken by one of his 
young chiefs, Siggenaak, the chief of the Milwaukee Pot- 
tawottomies. Saginaw is the name given by the whites. 

Pontiac captured both Fort St. Joe and Little Fort, at 
Tremont, in the Dunes. ‘The futility of attempting to van- 
quish the English was soon shown to him, and he declared 


FERDINAND LA SALLE 4I 


peace with the English government. A short time afterward 
he was at Kaskaskia on the Mississippi, where he was mur- 
dered by one of the Illinois Indians, the price being, it is said, 
a barrel of whisky offered by a trader. 

Pontiac had been a very famous Indian chief and was 
highly respected by the Indians of the Mississippi Valley. 
When they heard of his assassination they were furious 
and three of the great tribes of Illinois and Indiana got 
together to avenge his death. They were the Miamis, the 
Pottawottomies and the Kickapoos, with a few Indians 
from most of the neighboring tribes. 

These Indians started to attack all Illinois Indians in the 
northern part of Illinois and Indiana. It is claimed they 
drove them past Chicago and that a great battle took place 
between the Pottawottomies and the Illinois Indians on the 
banks of the Calumet River, at the southeastern foot of 
Blue Island, near where the electric power-house now stands. 
The Pottawottomies of the Dunes took active part in the 
battle against the Illinois Indians. The trail from Riverdale 
to Blue Island, near the southern bank of the Calumet River, 
was called Bloody Trail by the Pottawottomies. 

Mr. Ferdinand Schapper, the historian of the Blue Island 
region, who recently died, informed me that when he was 
a small boy, an old trapper who had lived with the Potta- 
wottomie Indians many years ago told him that they used 
to speak often of the great battle fought at Blue Island, 
where they had defeated the Illinois Indians with great 
slaughter, and had driven them along the Illini Trail to the 
South. Other tribes had also fought the Illinois Indians 
and had killed most of them, until the latter had been so 


42 THE WONDERS OF.THE DUNES 


badly defeated that they were compelled to flee for defense 
to the famous Starved Rock, upon which La Salle had built 
his fort of St. Louis so many years before. 

This rock contains a little over an acre and is about one 
hundred and fifty feet high, with almost perpendicular 
walls, except on the west side, where a foothold is possible. 
This was fortified and the Illinois Indians were able to stand 
off the enemy, who, as soon as they found they could not 
capture the place by assault, determined to capture the Ilh- 
nois through starvation and thirst. 

They would not allow anybody to leave to get provisions 
or water, and numbers were killed while trying to flee. 
Finally, the defenders began to perish from starvation and 
the allies were able to break in and capture the place, killing 
nearly all of the garrison. It is commonly said that all— 
men, women and children—were killed, but this is not true. 
It is stated that eleven of the Illinois escaped by diving into 
the river, made their way to safety at St. Louis, where they 
were called the Silent Men, as they would never tell to what 
tribe they belonged. There were also a few of the Illinois 
tribe not up there, because the government afterward had 
dealings with the Illinois tribe and these people acted as their 
representatives. 

After the close of the war with the Illinois Indians came 
the period of reconstruction among these Indian tribes. The 
Illinois nation, as a nation, was destroyed, though scattered 
members still remained. The question arose as to who 
should inherit the valuable, broad, fertile and wooded lands 
that the Illinois Indians had owned. It was the same prob- 
lem that is now troubling the world as a result of the World 
War. 


FERDINAND LA SALLE 43 


The Miamis claimed the greater part of them, as with 
the guns that they possessed, they had killed most of the 
Illinois; but the Pottawottomies and Kickapoos objected be- 
cause they had furnished the most men. They could come 
to no decision so they had a battle in 1770, with the Miamis 
on one side and the Pottawottomies and the Kickapoos on 
the other. The result of it was a draw, although the allies 
claimed it. 

Frequent clashes occurred, and in 1772 another pitched 
battle took place in which the Miamis claimed they were 
victors, though not decisively; but in September, 1775, the 
Pottawottomies and Kickapoos made a proposition to the 
Miamis to have another battle, to be fought in Indian style, 
and the victors to keep all the lands. 

Each side picked three hundred warriors to decide the 
affair. There were to be no guns or other weapons of 
the white man. They must use the Indian weapons, such 
as the bow, arrow, knife, tomahawk, spear, or any other 
Indian weapon, including, of course, the blow-gun, and have 
a genuine Indian battle. The Miamis accepted this chal- 
lenge, and each side picked its best warriors. The battle- 
field was selected at Sugar Creek, twenty miles from the 
Wabash River, in Indiana. The battle lasted from sunrise 
to sunset and extended over a great stretch of country. 
At the end of the day, there were left five Miamis against 
seven Pottawottomies and Kickapoos. 

The Miamis then fled, leaving the Pottawottomies and 
Kickapoos as victors; among them, Shick-shack, Sugar, 
Marquette and Shady, famous warriors, who had also been 
among the warriors who stormed Starved Rock. The 
Miamis were conquered, and by their agreement gave up all 


44. THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


claim to the hunting ground of the annihilated Illinois, and 
retired east of the Wabash River. 

The Pottawottomies and their allies, the Kickapoos, then 
became the successors of the Illinois. Soon after this final 
battle, they divided this territory between themselves, the 
Kickapoos taking all of the Illinois territory west of the 
Wabash to a line running north and south through Oliver’s 
Grove in Livingston County, Illinois, the Pottawottomies 
all the Illinois territory west of that line. 

This interesting account of the battle between the Miamis, 
Pottawottomies and Kickapoos is taken from Osman’s H1s- 
tory of Starved Rock. It was first published in the Morris 
Reformer in 1873 by Honorable P. Armstrong, who re- 
ceived much of this information when a boy from some of 
these Indians who had participated in this battle. 

There is a somewhat similar account in a book entitled, 
View of the United States of America, Pe by an 
English traveler in 1820. 


ETA ohn, 
THE CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST 


AFTER the British had conquered New France and an- 
nexed it to the English Dominions, they strengthened the 
French forts and garrisoned them with British troops. The 
principal forts in the Northwest Territory were at Detroit, 
Vincennes, Kaskaskia and Mackinaw, with small ones at St. 
Joseph, Cahokia and Fort Miami, near the present Fort 
Wayne, and also Little Fort, at Tremont, Indiana. 

When war broke out between the colonies and Great 
Britain, the French sided with the Americans. Governor 
Patrick Henry, who claimed the Illinois country for Vir- 
ginia, knew of this state of feeling and resolved to profit 
by it. 

When Governor Henry was ready to attack the Brit- 
ish in that region, he selected as the leader one of the promis- 
ing young soldiers in Virginia, Colonel George Rogers 
Clark, whose brilliant deeds have rendered him famous. 

With the details of the plan worked out, Colonel Clark 
obtained troops from Virginia with which he carried out 
that wonderful series of victories amid direful privations 
that made him famous as a great, skilful and sagacious 
general—the Hannibal of the West. 

The record of his voyage down the Ohio; the march 
through a narrow trail through the wood from Fort Massac 


45 


40 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


to Kaskaskia; its capture; Father Gibault’s march through 
the Hunters’ Path, from Kaskaskia to Vincennes, and Vin- 
cennes’ surrender to the Americans; the capture by Hamil- 
ton, with the awful march and the re-capture by Clark and 
his devoted followers, will be an inspiration to the lovers of 
liberty while time endures. 

While the honor of conquering the Northwest belongs to 
General George Rogers Clark, he was assisted greatly by 
his associates, chief of whom were Father Pierre Gibault, 
Colonel Francis Vigo, and Major Godfrey De Linctot. 

Gibault was the scholarly, self-denying spiritual adviser ; 
Vigo, the earnest, generous fur-trader; and Linctot, the 
fearless soldier and Indian commissioner. All were earnest, 
energetic patriots, who did all in their power to bind the 
people of the Northwest to the American cause. 

Gibault prepared the minds of the people to receive Clark 
and the American rule; Vigo aided Clark in personal serv- 
ice, loaning his entire fortune to the government; and 
Linctot, by his military skill and unceasing vigilance against 
the British and their Indians, combined with his wonderful 
influence over his Indians, acted as the Guardian of the 
Frontier. | 

General Clark sent De Linctot to the north throughout 
the Indian country to rouse that region and to overcome the 
propaganda that Langlade was using to persuade the waver- 
ing Indian tribes to unite against the Americans, and De 
Linctot did great service in this region. 

He visited Chicago and also Little Fort at Tremont, in 
the Dunes, as the British had concentrated their forces in 
the Chicago and Dune region at Fort St. Joseph, and Mack- 
inaw. 


THE CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST 47 


The Little Fort at Tremont was considered untenable by 
the British. One of De Linctot’s spies was said to be 
Chicago’s first settler, the French mulatto, Jean Baptiste 
Point au Saible. On his Illinois trip, Captain Langlade, 
who was the noted half-breed British Commander of the 
Chicago Dune region, drove Au Saible out of Chicago in 
1779. Lhe latter went to Trail Creek, near Michigan 
City, where he was later captured by Lieutenant Bennett 
and sent to Mackinaw, under suspicion as Linctot’s spy. 

Major De Linctot, a French officer, stationed at Cahokia, 
was of the greatest value to General Clark. He knew the 
Dunes thoroughly, having traveled them many times. He 
had been a guest of every Indian tribe and spoke many 
Indian languages; was also a great fur-trader. 

While Major De Linctot tried to get the Indians to join 
the Americans, Captain Langlade, who was working for the 
English, strongly opposed him.. Both were very well known, 
and well liked by their own people. 

Langlade was a half-breed French Indian. His father 
was a French trader of fine family, and his mother, the 
daughter of an Ottawa chief. It was he who started the 
French and Indian War, by coming down from Mackinaw 
with a band of Ottawa Indians, among whom was Pontiac, 
in 1752, and capturing Kekionga, now Fort Wayne. 

In 1779, the Indians of the Northwest, including the 
Pottawottomies of the Chicago Dune district, were called 
upon by the British Commander, Major DePeyster,. of 
Mackinaw, to unite and drive Clark and the Americans 
out of Ilinois and Indiana. Captain Langlade commanded 
the Pottawottomies of the Dunes and the Ottawas of Mich- 


48 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


igan. But the British and Indians were so badly defeated 
they retreated to the north. 

In 1780, the Chicago Dune Pottawottomies were again 
called upon, as the British intended to send troops down on 
a larger scale to capture all places under American rule, 
as Vincennes, Kaskaskia, Cahokia, etc.; somewhat like the 
Burgoyne expedition. Again the British and Indians were 
defeated and gave up all attempts to capture the Illinois 
and Indiana region. 

Major DePeyster, the British commander, gave special 
directions for capturing Major De Linctot, the American 
Commissioner of Indians, because the latter in organizing 
the great Indian Alliance, was a formidable enemy. But 
many of the British Indians liked Linctot, and would not 
allow the other Indians to kill or capture him. Linctot- 
chased Langlade to Chicago, reaching there with his three 
hundred troopers from Peoria a short time after Langlade 
left in haste for Mackinaw. When Linctot arrived in Chi- 
cago, the garrison at Fort St. Joseph was abandoned tem- 
porarily, as rumor said the American commissioner was 
on his way through the Dunes to capture Fort St. Joe, and 
join General Clark in attacking Detroit. 

Major DePeyster’s address to the Indian tribes at 
L’ Arbor Crouche—Crooked Tree—Wisconsin, on July 4, 
1779, was later put by him into doggerel rhyme, which is 
very interesting historically, since he explains the allusions 
to various persons and places: 


THE CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST = 49 


Observe the wretched Kickapoose ; 
What have they gained by Linctot’s news? 
(Linctot)—A runagate Frenchman who 
Used to communicate every favorable 
Event attending the enemy (Americans). 


Await the Kitchimotomans—(Big Knives), 
Or show yourselves more brave and wise, 
Ere they are joined by such allies; 
Clark, soon repulsed, will ne’er return— 
While your war fire thus clear doth burn. 


Observe the wretched Kickapoose. 
What have they gained by Linctot’s news? 
The Attogams—(Foxes), Pioreas and Sacks 
Have scarce a blanket to their backs. 


To Detroit Linctot bends his way. 
I, therefore, turn you from the Pay; (Fort Le Peé at 
. Peoria) 
To intercept the Chevalier (a nickname for Linctot) 
At Fort St. Joseph’s and O Post (Vincennes). 


While I send round Lake Michigan, 

To raise the warriors to a man! 
Who on their way to get you, 

Shall take a peep at Eschicagou (Chicago). 
(A river and fort at head of Lake Michigan.) 


Those rungates at Milwaukie, 
Must now perforce with you agree; 

Must with Langlade their forces join, 
Sly Siggenaak and Naakewein; 

Or he will send them tout de diable, 
As he did Baptiste Point au Saible. 


50 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


DePeyster refers to the tribes that had joined the Amer- 
icans—the foxes, Peorias, Sauks, Kickapoos, and the Mail- 
waukie Pottawottomies under Siggenaak and Naakewein. 
He ordered Langlade to drop the expedition to capture Fort 
Le Pee, at Peoria, and try to intercept Linctot before he 
could capture Ifort St. Joseph. Langlade chased Au Saible 
out of Chicago, saying the latter was one of Linctot’s spies. 
Au Saible trekked through the Dunes to Trail Creek, and 
was later arrested by Lieutenant Bennett and brought to 
Mackinaw. His cabin at Trail Creek was probably the one 
located near the Indian Council Grounds there, and later 
occupied by Coughlan. 

Colonel La Balm was a French officer under Washington 
as Inspector General of Cavalry, but resigned his position 
and came to Illinois. When the British forces were driven 
from Southern Illinois and Indiana, in 1780, La Balm 
thought that they were so cowed that it would be possible 
to assemble a force of French and Indians and capture De- 
troit. But in this he lacked the judgment of General Clark 
and Major De Linctot, who had decided it was too danger- 
ous to attempt to pass through the country of the hostile 
Miamis without a strong army back of them. 

La Balm called upon the French to enlist a large company, 
promising that he would lead them to Detroit and capture 
it, but not many listened. He got to Kekionga—now Fort 
Wayne—and captured it, because Little Turtle and his 
Miamis were on their southern hunting trip. They soon 
returned, and about November 7, 1780, attacked and de- 
feated the French and Ilinois Indians, killing La Balm. 

This engagement, though little more than a skirmish, had 
far-reaching significance. If it had succeeded, and had 


THE CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST © 51 


La Balm pushed forward instead of waiting for the reen- 
forcements that never came, he might have captured Detroit. 
Had that happened the probability is strong that La Balm 
would have held it for France instead of for the United 
States. 

As it was, the British killed La Balm and defeated his 
expedition. This increased their prestige among the In- 
dians very much and seriously diminished that of the Amer- 
icans, 

A short time after La Balm left Cahokia and Kaskaskia, 
a small party of people left Cahokia to capture Fort St. 
Joseph, in revenge for the burning of part of Cahokia by 
the British. As they went past Peoria, where Fort Le 
Peé was situated, and which also may have been burned 
when the British marauders burned that town in 1780, a 
few people from that place joined them. 

The belief some people have entertained that this party 
was part of La Balm’s force, detached for the express pur- 
pose of capturing Fort St. Joseph, and thus aiding La Balm, 
does not seem to be justified. They had pack horses and it 
was their intention undoubtedly to loot the fort, which was 
full of choice furs. They reached the fort and found the 
place deserted by the warriors, as the Indians were off on 
their annual hunt. They looted the place, and started with 
twenty-four bales of choice furs for home, via the Chicago 
Portage, taking the trail that led from Fort =:.-fseph; at 
Niles, to the Riviere du Chemim—Trail Creek—Michigan 
City, then down the beach through the Dunes to the Chicago 
_ Portage. 

Word was sent to Monsieur Etienne Champion, the head 
trader of that district, and he hastily collected a force of 


‘% oe 4 | we”) 
wid as thrsiigs dont Keo 


52 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Pottawottomies and rushed after the Americans. He over- 
took them at Trail Creek, near Michigan City, and attacked 
them on December 5, 1780. 

They had hoped to reach Petite Fort—Little Fort— 
which was in American hands, situated near the mouth of 
Fort Creek and Tremont, about eleven miles west of Michi- 
gan City and about one-half mile southwest of Mount Tom. 
The writer has located the site of this fort on a high bluff, 
about a half-mile from Lake Michigan, as fixed on the map 
of the Chicago region made for General Hull in 1812, and 
also the site of this battle. As a result of this fight at 
Trail Creek, the Americans were badly defeated.’ The 
leader, Captain Baptiste Hamelin, a half-breed, and several 
others were killed, a number wounded or captured and a 
few others escaped in the thick woods. Lieutenant Thomas 
Brady was captured, but later escaped. : 

After Champion had won the fight, Lieutenant Dagneux 
Du Quindre, the military commander of that district, 
claimed the honor of having defeated the Americans and 
notified Major DePeyster, of Detroit, that he had defeated 
them at Petite Fort. Lieutenant-Governor P. Sinclair of 
Michill Macinac—Mackinaw—denied this very vigorously in 
his letter to Secretary Matthews, January 1, 1781, and said 
that Champion had that honor; that he had defeated Hame- 
lin at Trail Creek and that Du Quindre, the military com- 
mander, was not on the job at all. 

Sinclair wrote again to Governor-General Haldimand, 
of Canada, on date of May 1, 1781, stating that Du Quindre 
had very greatly imposed on DePeyster; that Champion had 
won the fight; and that he—Sinclair)was sorry that Du 


THE CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST © 53 


Quindre had not attended to his post at Fort St. Joseph, 
when the Spaniards captured it. 

On the first of June, 1781, Secretary Matthew states that 
his excellency had received Sinclair’s letter, and requests 
him; to reward Champion for his good conduct in defeating 
the Americans. 

This correspondence, which in places is quite snappy, is 
published in full, with references, in the author’s “Biography 
of Major De Linctot, the Guardian of the Frontier,” in the 
Journal of the Illinois Historical Society for October, 1917. 
The entire biography is worth reading, as it deals with the 
romantic life of that brave, chivalrous Frenchman, Major 
De Linctot, who seems to have been a splendid type of one 
of Dumas’ Three Musketeers, especially D’Artagnan. 

This correspondence settles the question of the winner 
and the location of the fight between the Americans and 
British on December 5, 1780, as it was officially acknowl- 
edged by General Haldimand that Lieutenant-Governor 
Sinclair’s assertion that Champion defeated Hamelin at 
Trail Creek decided the matter. 

This battle-field at Trail Creek belongs to the original 
Springland Farm of over six hundred acres, owned by 
ex-Mayor Krueger. The fleeing Americans would be obliged 
to ford Trail Creek and would camp at Marquette Spring 
on the side of the ancient Council Grounds where there were 
fine springs. Here they were probably surprised by the 
pursuing Pottawottomies, led by Champion, and were badly 
defeated in a running fight. Most of this battle took place 
on this Springfield Farm, and a monument to these Ameri- 
cans should be erected by Michigan City in the Memorial 


54 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Park presented to the city by Mr. Krueger, which is part of 
the original battle-field. 

Mason says it was fought in 1779 near the Calumet ( Mil- 
ler) ; Currie places it at South Chicago; Major Lee fol- 
lows Du Quindre, and says it was near Little Fort—La 
Petite—at Waverly Beach, near the mouth of Little Fort 
River; while Champion, the man who really defeated Hame- 
lin and Brady, says it was at Trail Creek. General Haldi- 
mand gave his sanction to the Riviere du Chemin—Trail 
Creek—location, with Champion as the hero. 

The results of this apparently insignificant skirmish were 
far-reaching and very helpful to the British cause. When 
the Americans had captured Fort St. Joseph, there had been 
no one to oppose them, but as soon as the British traders 
and Indians appeared, the few Americans, sixteen in num- 
ber, were easily disposed of. 

However, it had great psychological importance; for, 
coupled with the defeat of La Balm, it seemed as if Amer- 
ica’s influence was waning, and consequently her prestige 
was sadly impaired. The British began to labor more 
boldly with the Indians, and with success. 

When the survivors of the Hamelin expedition to St. 
Joseph returned to Cahokia, and reported the defeat of their 
expedition, a desire for vengeance swept over the com- 
munity. When these men reported how easy it was for a 
strong force to capture Fort St. Joseph, a company of 
volunteers was raised in Cahokia. 

The Spanish governor of St. Louis, M. Cruzat, was will- 
ing to raise a company to aid the Cahokians. The entire 
force, according to the Americans, consisted of thirty Span- . 
iards, twenty men from Cahokia—Americans and French— 








Roap NEAR WAVERLY BEACH 





THE CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST | 55 


and two hundred Indians, among them Linctot’s friend, 
Siggenaak, chief of the Milwaukee Pottawottomies. The 
Spaniards, later, claimed that there were sixty-five Spanish 
militia and sixty Indians, omitting mention altogether of 
the Americans and French. 

The Americans claimed that when they were ready to 
start their expedition, a vote was taken for a commander 
of the expedition, with only the white men voting, and the 
Spanish captain, Don Eugenio Pierrot, was declared com- 
mander. 

They started up the Illinois River in boats, as far as 
Peoria, and from there struck three hundred miles across 
country, through a wilderness to St. Joseph; they, may have 
marched up the [lini Trail to near Joliet, then taken the 
Sauk Trail to the northeast, that led directly to St. Joseph. 
They were obliged to use a regular trail, in order to get 
through the woods, swamps and jungles. They reached 
there February 12, 1781, and attacked the fort. There 
was very little resistance, as Lieutenant Du Quindre was 
again not on the job. The British flag was hauled down, 
and to the unspeakable indignation of the American and 
French soldiers, the Spanish flag was hoisted in its place, 
and Captain Pierrot took possession of the whole Northwest 
Territory in the name of the king of Spain. Thus the 
Chicago Dune region was claimed by Spain, and considered 
as Spanish territory. 

The people from Cahokia were very angry, but Pierrot 
declared he was acting under instructions from his gov- 
ernment, and that everything would be fixed up all right 
by their respective governments. 

Don Pierrot destroyed much of the captured material, 


56 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


spiked the three guns, and retained the best of the cap- 
tured furs. He stayed twenty-four hours, burned the fort, 
and started back for home February thirteenth, taking with 
him the English flag, which he presented to Governor Cru- 
zat, who sent it to the Spanish king, telling him his brave 
Spanish soldiers had captured this important British post, 
and annexed this great territory to Spain. 

This trip to St. Joseph took six weeks, three weeks to 
Peoria and three by land from there to St. Joseph. The 
report that the return trip from St. Joseph was made by 
the early part of March should be the latter part of March. 
A possible relic of this expedition is an ancient iron halberd 
that was found on the old Michigan Road, near the Calumet 
River, close to Dolton, by Mr. Berger. 

Possibly the little ax found near Wabash Avenue and 
One Hundred Eighth Street, Chicago, is another relic 
of the same expedition. Both the little ax, eighteen inches 
long, found at One Hundred Eighth Street and Wabash 
Avenue, Chicago, and the halberd found by Berger, near 
Thornton, were found near the Detroit-Chicago Road, that 
goes to Michigan City, thence east through Niles—Fort St. 
Joe—to Detroit, and is called the Michigan Road. The 
halberd was called by the English, the Pole Ax. 

Major De Linctot, whose health had become sadly im- 
paired after his almost superhuman work organizing the 
Indian Alliance, and who was then under a skilful doctor’s 
care in St. Louis, writes General Clark from there on July 
31, 1781, that an express had just arrived, telling them that 
Governor Galvez, of New Orleans, who was the Spanish 
commander, had by some very brilliant trench work just 
captured Pensacola and Mobile, as well as Natchez, thus 


THE CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST 57 


obtaining all of Florida, both East and West Florida. 
Galvez sent the flags of both cities to Spain and the king 
annexed the territory south of the Ohio to Spain, just as he 
had the Northwest Territory a short time before. 

Spain accordingly felt as if she had a right to all of the 
vast territory between the Mississippi and the Alleghanies, 
and so laid claim to it at the peace conference; but her claim 
was reduced to the Floridas. The cession of the North- 
west Territory to France and the Southwest to Spain, ac- 
cording to the plan desired by these two countries, was 
badly defeated by the United States, as we were in actual 
possession of this territory by conquest and occupation, and 
therefore successfully maintained our rights to it. 

General Clark desired very much to attack Detroit, but 
could not get enough soldiers to make such an expedition 
advisable. His great commissioner of Indiana, Major De 
Linctot, in whom General Clark, Governor Thomas Jeffer- 
son of Virginia, and the Continental Congress had the great- 
est confidence, as shown in their letters of praise, tried 
several times to organize such an expedition, which alarmed 
the British very much; but he was unable properly to equip 
such a force effectively to march through a hostile region. 

Major DePeyster, in his speech to the Indian Conferences 
in 1770, states there was a fort at Eschicagou, or Chicago. 
It was really a blockhouse, with a fence of palisades or logs, 
set up on end, about fifteen or twenty feet high, set deep 
in the ground, and fastened together with heavy strips of 
wood. 

The Chicago Little Fort, the Little Fort at Tremont, and 
Little Fort at Waukegan were abandoned by the British 
soldiers or traders after their defeat in 1780; even Fort 


58 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


St. Joseph was abandoned for a while in 1779-80, when it 
was rumored Linctot was on his way to capture Detroit. 

When the Spanish commander captured Fort St. Joseph, 
and in 1781 annexed the Chicago Dune region, as well as 
the whole Northwest, to Spain, the Pottawottomie allies, 
who had been faithful to the Americans, especially Sigge- 
naak, the Pottawottomie chief of Milwaukee, were very 
much disgusted with the Americans for allowing Captain 
Pierrot to capture this territory and annex it to Spain. 
Siggenaak knew Major De Linctot would not have allowed 
it but the major was sick then and in the hospital. 

Linctot died in the summer of 1781, worn out from his 
almost incredible activity. At his death the last active 
influence in keeping the Indians on the side of the Ameri- 
cans was removed, and Linctot’s great Indian Alliance, ex- 
tending from Pennsylvania and Virginia to the Mississippi, 
collapsed like a house of cards. Nearly all of the Indians, 
including Siggenaak, then became active allies of the Brit- 
ish. 

The treaty of peace with Great Britain was signed on 
September 3, 1783. The United States was recognized by 
Great Britain to be a free and independent country, extend- 
ing from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River, with 
the exception of the eastern part of Louisiana, and the 
Floridas, which were granted to Spain. These had been 
captured by the brilliant campaigns of Governor Galvez 
of New Orleans.- The Chicago Dune region was again 
American, 

In 1787 the region north of the Ohio was organized into 
one great territory, called the Northwest Territory, of which 


THE CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST 59 


the Chicago Dune region is a part. Among the ordinances 
adopted were the following important ones: 


1. The General Assembly shall consist of a Governor, the 

Council and the House of Representatives, consisting of 

one representative to every five hundred male inhabi- 

tants. 

There shall be freedom of religious belief and practice. 

States may be admitted into the Union when the pop- 

ulation will justify it. 

4. Slavery shall not exist within the territory northwest 
of the Ohio River. 

5. Section 16 in every township shall be kept for the needs 
of the schools in said township. 


wh 


But, even with the treaty of peace signed, and the gov- 
ernment of the United States organized, the Northwest 
was not yet conquered. The Indians had conceived such 
contempt for the Americans, as a result of the Spanish claim 
for the Northwest Territory, that, despite our final victory, 
we had “lost face’ with them. 

The British gave so many valuable presents to the Indians 
of the Northwest that they attached themselves to the Brit- 
ish in large numbers, and later defeated the Americans in 
several severe battles. Most of the Pottawottomies from 
the Dunes and neighboring Kickapoos took part in these 
battles. Generals Harmar and St. Clair were defeated. Har- 
mar and many soldiers were killed by these Indians in Brit- 
ish pay, who said they would drive all American whites 
out of the Indian country. There were Indians there from 
Milwaukee, Chicago, Tremont, Hegewisch, Thornton, Trail 
Creek, Liverpool, St. Joseph, etc. 


60 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


If Major De Linctot, with his wonderful influence over 
the Indians had been alive, he might have been able to 
prevent this Indian War. But the great fighter, diplomat 
and Indian commissioner had passed away with none to 
take his place. General Clark had been mustered out of 
the army and was ill. General Washington looked around 
for a man who could command the situation in the West. 
He selected the man best fitted, General Anthony Wayne— 
Mad Anthony—as he was called, on account of the many 
desperate chances he took in defeating the British. 

Washington himself trained General Wayne in the best 
way to fight the Indians, insisting on eternal vigilance. He 
was to march in open order, keep his command together, 
stop marching in the afternoon, and build a log barricade 
around the entire camp, wherever they stopped. Wayne 
spent ¢wo years in training his men before he was ready 
to march against the Indians. By that time he had several 
thousand men, both infantry and cavalry, most of them 
trained soldiers; many of them frontiersmen. He had re- 
peatedly trained them in all kinds of Indian tactics. 

Never was the value of preparedness more clearly shown 
than when in 1795 he marched north with his army from 
Cincinnati, building strong forts at strategic points, and 
following Washington’s instructions to the letter. He was 
harassed by the Indians at every step and finally attacked 
at Fallen Timbers, Indiana, by a large body of them, in- 
cluding many from the Dunes and the Chicago region; from 
St. Joe to Milwaukee. 

General Wayne defeated them with great slaughter, and. 
thus avenged the crushing defeats of Harmar and St. Clair. 
He then built a very strong fort at Kekionga, or Miami 


Pea eCONOQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST. 61 


Town, and called it Fort Wayne. This commanded the 
portage between the Maumee and the Wabash Rivers, that 
Pontiac said was the “Gateway to the West.”’ 

In 1795, the great Treaty of Greenville was concluded at 
Fort Greenville, Ohio, All the leading Indian tribes of the 
Northwest were represented—Pottawottomies, Ottawas, 
Kickapoos, Wyandots, Shawnees, Weas, Miamis, Chippe- 
was, etc. Little Turtle was so impressed with the bravery, 
skill and fair treatment of Wayne that he and his warriors 
refused to fight against the Americans in all future Indian 
troubles. 

This treaty, presided over by General Wayne, is im- 
portant, not so much from the amount or the value of the 
land given to the United States, as it is the strategic value 
of the places ceded. The general feeling of peace declared 
between the United States government and all the Indian 
tribes who took part in the treaty was also a great gain. 

The Indians, who had formerly despised the American 
commanders of the West, since Clark and Linctot, had now 
the greatest respect for Mad Anthony Wayne. So in this 
treaty, the Indians not only declared their allegiance to the 
United States and swore to be always friends with the 
Americans, but they also ceded about sixteen tracts of land, 
strategic points, that comprised all the principal trading 
posts and portages in the territory that now comprises Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, including Macki- 
nac Island, “‘and one piece of land six miles square at the 
mouth of the Chickago River, emptying into the southwest 
end of Lake Michigan, where a fort formerly stood.” They 
referred here to the little tassements, or palisaded block- 
houses, that, at different times, were formerly located here. 


CHA ORY. 
THE CHICAGO MASSACRE 


In 1800, the population of the Northwest Territory had 
so increased that it was divided. All that part of the terri- 
tory west of the present state of Ohio was set off as the 
Territory of Indiana, and William Henry Harrison ap- 
pointed its governor. 

The United States realized that the Indians of the North- 
west were not loyal to the United States, but preferred the 
British, who gave them many rich presents. Mackinac was 
still held by the British, and proved to be a great source 
of trouble in stirring up the Indians against American rule. 

The president, Thomas Jefferson, saw that something 
must be done to protect the settlers of the northwestern 
region from the wrath of the Indians, who were in British 
pay, and, seeking the best location for a fort, decided that 
Chicago, at the head of the great portage, was of the utmost 
strategic value in controlling the Northwest. 

He accordingly in 1803 decided to locate a fort at Chi- 
cago, under the command of Captain Whistler, and called 
it Fort Dearborn, in honor of General Henry Dearborn, 
at that time secretary of war. To appreciate its isolated 
nature, we must realize that from Chicago to New York 
and Philadelphia stretched an almost unbroken forest, 
pierced here and there by winding rivers or dotted with 


62 


THE CHICAGO MASSACRE 63 


beautiful little lakes or numerous swamps, so that Fort 
Dearborn was really the outpost of civilization. 

Lieutenant Swearingen, who marched overland from De- 
troit to Chicago, must have used the old trails from Detroit 
to Michigan City, passing through the Kinzie’s Improve- 
ment, at Niles, which is on the site of old Fort St. Joseph, 
through New Buffalo, and at the mouth of the Portage 
River, or Trail Creek, where Michigan City now is. 

On August 15, 1803, he records that they proceeded on 
the march at five o'clock in the morning, camped at nine 
o'clock in the evening, near an old fort which is possibly 
Little Fort of the Revolution, which General Hull locates 
a little southwest of Mount Tom, at Tremont. 

When the Tracy, with Captain Whistler, the commander, 
reached Chicago, she was not able to make the shore, but 
was obliged to anchor a half-mile out, as the water was 
too shallow there. The cargo was carried to the shore in 
Mackinaw row-boats and stored on the south bank of the 
river, near the mouth of the stream. Here Fort Dearborn 
was located, and completed in the summer of 1804. 

There were only four buildings then in Chicago. They 
belonged to French trappers, among whom were Ouilmette, 
Lemai and Pettell. Lemai’s cabin was the one originally 
erected by Baptiste Point au Saible, the famous French 
mulatto, who had been arrested by Lieutenant Bennett in 
1779. He later sold his cabin to Lemai, moving back to 
Peoria, after he had been “turned down” by the Pottawot- 
tomies, Ottawas and Chippewas, as their hereditary chief. 
They preferred later to have Alexander Robinson as their 
head. 

It was getting toward fall and Captain Whistler began 


64 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


work on the fort to have it ready before winter. While the 
fort was building, the ladies occupied the little cabins of 
the French trappers. Since there were no horses or oxen to 
be obtained and since the Indians had gone to their own 
villages or off on their hunt, the soldiers were compelled 
to get the timbers themselves. They worked during the 
winter and dragged the logs for several miles, undoubtedly 
on rude sleds. The fort, strong and well arranged, was 
completed in the summer of 1804. It was considered one 
of the strongest forts in the West and was surrounded by 
a stout stockade of oak pickets fourteen feet high, enclosing 
a square of about six hundred feet. 

After the fort was put up, John Kinzie, the Silverman, 
and his family arrived in the spring of 1804 and became 
residents of Chicago. He bought Lemai’s cabin on the 
north side of the river, facing the fort, and improved it and 
the grounds somewhat elaborately for that time. 

The fur trade of Chicago was under the Fur-Traders’ 
Headquarters at Mackinaw. All business was based upon 
the fur trade. The furs were brought to Chicago from all 
over the Chicago and Dune region, and even much farther 
away. The fur-traders would visit the various tribes, bring- 
ing their exchange goods with them, such as needles, thread, 
beads, tobacco, ribbons, liquor, guns, ammunition, spears, 
tomahawks, knives, blankets, traps, cloth and other things 
that were in demand. 

John Kinzie, who was an expert silversmith, made silver 
bracelets, rings and chains, and was very popular among 
the Indians of the Chicago Dune district, who called him 
Shaw-ne-aw-kee—Silverman. 

Most of the fur-traders and the trappers were French, 


THE CHICAGO MASSACRE 65 


descendants of the old settlers of the Northwest. These 
French voyagers were strong, energetic, good-hearted peo- 
ple, who were equal to the very hardest kind of work. 
Many of them were married to Indian wives who soon 
became accustomed to the customs of the French women 
in Canada, the Northwest and the Illinois region. The 
children were very often well educated and well mannered 
and were sought in marriage by many of the leading 
French, English and American settlers of this region. 

A feeling of worry began to take possession of the settlers 
of the West as the Indians became more insolent and 
turbulent. In 1810, a meeting of all the chiefs of the north- 
western tribes, under Tecumseh, with the exception of the 
Miamis,—who under their great chief, Little Turtle, had 
remained faithful to the whites,—gathered at Tippecanoe 
on the Wabash in a great council. They had returned 
from a meeting at Fort Malden, Canada, where they had 
received further instructions from the British government. 
Many of the Indians from the Chicago Dune region 
attended this conference. 

It soon became known that the Indians intended to go 
on the war-path, and small forts or blockhouses were built 
everywhere and everything put in a state of defense. Gen- 
eral W. H. Harrison took command and marched with 
seven hundred soldiers from Vincennes against Tecumseh. 
In August, 1811, he defeated the Shawnee chief and burned 
the village of Tippecanoe which stood a few miles above 
the present City of Lafayette, Indiana. Many of the Pot- 
tawottomies from this region were fighting with Tecumseh. 
Shabona, afterward the great friend of the white people, 
was Tecumseh’s chief aid at this battle. 


66 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


After this defeat, Tecumseh fled into Canada. The tribes 
scattered but soon reappeared in various places. The defeat 
of Tecumseh does not seem to have been sufficient to quell 
them. The Prophet, the brother of Tecumseh, had gone 
all over the eastern part of the Mississippi Valley and 
induced the Indians to make common cause against the 
whites. 

The Pottawottomies, who had never given any trouble 
in the Chicago region before, began now to come in large 
numbers to Chicago, making boasting speeches. One of 
them, a chief of the Calumet region, stated to a companion 
that these officers’ wives, who were playing battledore, a 
kind of tennis, would be hoeing corn in the Indians’ fields 
before very long. 

The settlers around Fort Dearborn felt no particular 
worry until April 7, 1812, when a band of eleven Winne- 
bagoes from Wisconsin appeared at the Lees’ farm-house, 
and killed Mr. White and a French voyager. A soldier and 
a young son of Mr. Lee made their escape and quietly went 
down to the town and warned the Burns, Wilmette and 
Kinzie families, and the soldiers. 

Troubles with Great Britain multiplied and on the nine- 
teenth of June, 1812, the United States declared war against 
Great Britain. This immediately started operations in the 
West and on the sixteenth of July the English captured 
Fort Mackinac from the Americans. 

Gurdon Hubbard, who first stopped at Chicago in 1818, 
states that it was said by people there to be a well-known 
fact that Pierre LeClaire first brought the news to Chicago 
of the declaration of war against Great Britain, having 
been sent by Major Robert Forsythe to the latter’s uncle, 


THE CHICAGO MASSACRE 67 


John Kinzie. Quaife thinks it was after the middle of 
July, 1812. | 

LeClaire started from the mouth of the St. Joseph River 
before daylight, traveling along the lake shore to Chicago, 
a distance of fully ninety miles. He arrived at Mr. Kinzie’s 
house, ate his, supper, crossed the river again and reported 
the news to the officers of Fort Dearborn before nine o’clock 
that evening! He is certainly the champion Dune hiker! 
He undoubtedly also used the old Indian trails through the 
Dunes, which were cooler and firmer. He seems to be 
the same man who acted as interpreter at the Chicago Mas- 
sacre. 

The officers at Fort Dearborn were without official news 
of these events until the seventh of August, when the sentry 
on duty at Fort Dearborn perceived an Indian hastening 
along the trail from the south with great speed. 

As he approached the fort, he was recognized as Chief 
Winnemuc, or Winnemac, of the Pottawottomies, who had 
come from Detroit with a most ominous message from Gen- 
eral Hull, stating that the United States had declared war 
against Great Britain, and Captain Heald was ordered to 
evacuate Fort Dearborn, distribute the goods among the 
Indians, and proceed to Detroit with the troops via Fort 
Wayne, to take part in an expedition against Canada. Hull 
had undoubtedly received information of the fall of 
Mackinac. Most probably the officers of Fort Dearborn 
had also. 

Chief Winnemuc and several of the officers advised Cap- 
tain Heald to leave as soon as possible, before the Indians 
heard of his order to abandon the fort, but Captain Heald 
refused to do this, for he thought the Indians were not 


68 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


hostile, and his orders stated he must distribute the goods 
among them. 

He accordingly waited until over six hundred Indians, 
most Pottawottomies, from Milwaukee to St. Joseph, were 
gathered around the fort, and then asked them to give 
him a friendly escort of five hundred warriors to Fort 
Wayne, which they readily—too readily—promised to do, 
though Mr. Kinzie and the younger officers begged Captain 
Heald to hold the fort, as it was strong, well garrisoned, 
and had food and ammunition enough for a six months’ 
siege. 

Chief Black Partridge came to the fort and gave up the 
peace medal given him by General Wayne at the treaty of 
Greenville, because, as he said, the younger Indians had 
determined to capture the fort. 

He, together with Chief Topinabe, Chief Winnemuc, 
Chief Pokagon of Michigan, Chief Alexander Robinson and 
Chief Billy Caldwell—the Sauganash, or Englishman—tried 
to get the Pottawottomies, Kickapoos and Ottawas, who 
' were closely allied, to remain friends with the Americans, 
but they could not overcome the eagerness of their younger 
Indians to declare war. 

On the eighteenth of August, Captain William Wells 
arrived from Fort Wayne with an escort of thirty friendly 
Miami Indians. He was the Indian agent there, and was 
celebrated as a great warrior. He had been brought up 
among the Miami Indians and had married a daughter of 
their great Indian chief, Little Turtle. 

After his arrival, he recommended strongly that the liquor 
be poured into the Chicago River, and the guns be broken 
up and together with the ammunition be thrown into the 
FIVEt, 


THE CHICAGO MASSACRE 69 


By that time, the Indians were assembling from Wiscon- 
sin, the northern part of Illinois and Indiana, and also 
from Southern Michigan; the great majority of these were 
Pottawottomies, though there was a sprinkling of Winne- 
bagoes, Ottawas and Kickapoos; also a few Sacs and Foxes. 

It was determined to abandon Fort Dearborn on the 
morning of August 15, 1812, and march through the woods, 
along the Indian trails, to Fort Wayne, Indiana. While 
there were about one hundred and twenty men, women and 
children in the fort, there were only forty men in good 
fighting condition; the others were sick. The thirty Miami 
Indians were considered good fighters too. 

Mrs. Kinzie and her children were placed in a large boat 
under the protection of Chief Topinabe of the St. Joseph 
Pottawottomies, who wished to take all of the Kinzies, in- 
cluding their daughter, Mrs. Helm, who, however, insisted 
on staying with her husband, Lieutenant Helm. Mr. Kinzie 
thought he would be of some assistance to the garrison if 
he stayed with them. Mrs. Kinzie was a witness of the 
awful scenes that soon followed. 

The garrison marched out from the fort, along the Indian 
trail bordering the lake, with the women and children in 
the middle of the line in wagons. Captain Wells was in 
the lead with some of the Miamis. Captain Heald brought 
up the rear, leaving the abandoned fort to be plundered. 
The band played the Dead March. The Indians to the num- 
ber of five hundred rode on ponies along the lines, osten- 
sibly as an escort to protect them. 

It was a most harrowing march—a modern Via Dolorosa 
—one of the worst in history, with the bloodthirsty pack of 
savages surrounding them; but this was made still more 


70 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


agonizing, when the great body of Indians disappeared be- 
hind the sand-dunes about where the Auditorium now 
stands and rode ahead behind this ridge, for about a mile. 
Oh, the agony that must have filled the souls of these fugi- 
tives, on this awful march! The women and children, 
dreading the awful fate that might await them; the men, 
fearing for these dear ones, but grimly resolving to battle 
to the death for them. It was certainly a Via Dolorosa— 
a Road of Sorrow. 

As the fugitives approached what is now Eighteenth 
Street, they were attacked by the Indians, who had formed 
an ambuscade at that point. The troops formed in line to 
repel them. The Miami Indians became panic-stricken and 
fled for home, as the Pottawottomies and Kickapoos were 
not on friendly terms with the Miamis since their battle 
with them in 1775. 

The women and children were guarded by a company of 
soldiers at the cottonwood trees near the foot of Eighteenth 
Street where the Fort Dearborn Massacre Monument, given 
to the Chicago Historical Society by George M. Pullman, 
is now placed. This dreadful massacre continued for more 
than an hour. The soldiers had been given twenty-five 
rounds of ammunition, and sold their lives dearly, ware 
half of the Indians being killed. 

The garrison surrendered on condition that if they were 
not ransomed by friends, they were to be delivered to the 
nearest British post as prisoners of war. But, as soon as 
they surrendered, the savages treated them in a most hor- 
rible manner, and especially the wounded. They killed all 
but twenty-five soldiers and eleven women and children. 
Captain Wells was struck down after he had killed eight 


iiareChicCAGO MASSACRE 71 


Indians by his own hands. He was so fearless a man that 
his heart was eaten by the Indians that some of his bravery 
might thus pass to them. 

Mrs. Helm was badly injured by an Indian who tried to 
kill and scalp her, but while struggling hard with him, she 
was seized by an old Indian and borne to the lake near by 
and her head dipped under water. She soon found the Indian 
was not trying to drown her and on looking at him closely 
found it was Black Partridge. 

The prisoners were distributed among the different Indian 
tribes, to be held as slaves or returned if a large enough 
ransom was paid for them. Mrs. Kinzie, and her family, 
including Mrs. Helm, finally reached St. Joseph. Lieu- 
tenant Helm was taken by the Pottawottomies to the Kanka- 
kee River region, and finally ransomed, especial credit being 
due a noted half-breed chief, called Shadney by the Ameri- 
cans, the original name probably being Chaudonnais. That 
ancient chief, Siggenaak, carried some captives to Muil- 
waukie, as it was then spelled. 

The news of this awful massacre shocked the ‘entire 
country, and also the British officers, who hastened to deny 
any connection with it, saying it was done by a lot of 
irresponsible savages. The British commander immediately 
gave orders to have all of the prisoners looked up and re- 
turned to the nearest British posts so that they could be 
restored to their families, which was done as soon as 
possible. 

The splendid bronze monument representing the Fort 
Dearborn Massacre shows the Indian about to kill and scalp 
Mrs. Helm, John Kinzie’s—the Silverman’s—daughter, who 
is trying to get his scalping knife. The chief who is bidding 


72 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


the Indian stop is Black Partridge. There are four bronze 
panels on the pedestal. One shows Black Partridge giving 
up his peace medal to Captain Heald, in the fort; 2—the 
march from the fort; 3—the battle and the death of Captain 
Wells; 4—the prostrate figure is Doctor Van Voorhis, and 
the child represents the little children who were tomahawked 
in the wagon. 


CHAPTER VII 
PIONEER LIFE 


WHEN Alfred Jennings, delegate from Indiana Territory, 
put a resolution through Congress in 1816, extending the 
state of Indiana ten miles to the northward, taking that 
much from Michigan Territory, so that Indiana could have 
a decent lake harbor, afterward located at Michigan City, 
he did not realize that he was establishing a most valuable 
precedent for Illinois. 

In June, 1816, the United States government sent Captain 
Hezekiah Bradley to rebuild Fort Dearborn, which was 
made very strong. Hubbard says that the stockade and 
all the buildings were neatly whitewashed and presented a 
neat and pleasing appearance. 

There was great talk of constructing the Illinois and 
Michigan Canal, and to obtain undisputed possession of this, 
it was found necessary to get a strip of land from the In- 
dians that would cover the land needed for the canal. 

Accordingly, in 1816, the Treaty of St. Louis was signed 
in which the Indians ceded to the government a strip of 
land twenty miles wide, bordering on Lake Michigan, ten 
miles on each side of the Chicago River, and extending 
from Evanston to South Chicago. It extended southwest to 
the mouth of the Fox River on the north and the Kankakee 
on the south, protecting the entire Chicago Portage. 


73 


74 THE, WONDERS OF THE DONES 


One concession to the Indians—the Pottawottomies, etc., 
—made in this treaty is of sentimental value to them, as 
it gives them the right to hunt and fish within this tract as 
long as it may continue to be the property of the United 
States. 

When Illinois petitioned Congress to become a state in 
1818, Nathaniel Pope, the delegate to Congress from Illi- 
nois, had decided to follow the example set by Alfred 
Jennings of Indiana, who succeeded in getting ten miles of 
coast land from Michigan. Pope asked to have Illinois 
extended up to 42° 30’, so as to control the Illinois and 
Michigan Canal and also have good harbors, Waukegan, 
Chicago and South Chicago being then in the territory of 
Wisconsin. Congress approved this, and on December 3, 
1818, Illinois, with three fine harbors, was admitted as a 
state. 

The Chicago River, until 1828, according to Gurdon 
Hubbard, emptied into Lake Michigan at a point known as 
the Pines, a clump of a hundred or more small pine-trees 
located at the sand-hills near the Logan Monument. Be- 
tween the river and the lake, and extending south to the 
Pines, was a narrow strip of sand, formed by the northern 
winds, which gradually forced the mouth of the river south 
of its original outlet at Fort Dearborn. 

In the spring of 1828, the Chicago River had a very 
strong current caused by a flood, and taking advantage of 
this, Captain Fowle, the commander of Fort Dearborn, had 
his soldiers dig a ditch through the sand spit so as to have 
the river go directly east into the lake. This was done and 
the force of the water soon washed a channel fifteen feet 
deep directly to the lake. This soon began to fill with 


PIONEER LIFE 7° 


sand and the river began to shift again to the south and 
finally emptied into the lake at Madison Street, which posi- 
tion it kept until the river was dredged out by the govern- 
ment in 1834 and kept where it now is. 

The North Branch was then known as River Guarie, 
named after a French trader, who had tilled the soil there, 
and whose corn hills were still recognized as such by 
Hubbard. 

The United States, after the treaty of Prairie Du Chien, 
1829, owned all the country on the east side of the Missis- 
sippi River from the Gulf of Mexico to the mouth of the 
Wisconsin River. Black Hawk never acknowledged the au- 
thority of the chiefs of the Sacs and Foxes who gave their 
lands to the government in 1804, and when white people 
attempted to settle on the lands of his village on the Rock 
River, he objected vigorously. 

During the war with Black Hawk, in 1832, he was de- 
feated and captured. The government decided that it was 
dangerous to leave the Indians in charge of these vast tracts 
of land as the country was being settled rapidly by immi- 
grants from the East and the South. 

They therefore made a final treaty, at Chicago, with the 
Pottawottomies, Chippewas and Ottawas in 1833. This 
final session extinguished the Indian title in Illinois and 
Indiana and left the country open to settlers. This treaty, 
undoubtedly the saddest of all Indian treaties to the In- 
dians, was considered of such great consequence that people 
were present from all over the United States and Europe. 
The account of this written by an English traveler and 
writer is most interesting. He says in speaking of Chi- 
cago: 


76 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


“The Indians were encamped on all sides. They consisted 
of three tribes, among them the Pottawottomies of the 
Prairie and of the Forest. There were all kinds of people 
present—horse dealers and horse stealers—rogues of every 
description—white, black, brown and red. 

“The little village was in an uproar from morning to 
night and from night to morning. During the hours of 
darkness, when the housed portion of the population of 
Chicago strove to obtain repose the Indians howled, sang, 
wept, yelled and whooped in their various encampments. 
With all this, the whites seemed to me to be more pagan 
than the red men.” 


As a result of this treaty, the Pottawottomies, Ottawas, 
and Chippewas gave up all their claims to the Indian lands 
in the Northwest, and moved to Missouri; then to Kansas 
and finally to the Indian Territory, though many Indians 
still remained in Illinois and Indiana in the Chicago Dune 
region. The Northwest Territory was now ready for white 
settlers everywhere. 

After the government in 1816 had obtained the strip of 
land ten miles on each side of the Chicago River to protect 
a possible canal there, people from the East began by thou- 
sands to move to the West. A survey for a road for a 
stage-coach between Detroit and Chicago was made in 1825, 
and carried out later. This road followed the old Sauk 
Road pretty closely, running from Detroit to Bertrand, 
Niles, New Carlisle, LaPorte, Valparaiso, Westville, and — 
taking the northern Sauk Road through Chesterton, Porter, 
Baileytown, through the Dunes near Dune Park to Lake 
Michigan, and along the beach to Chicago. Frank Knotts, 
of Gary, Indiana, obtained the original United States sur- 
vey map of this road, though when built it did not follow 


PIONEER LIFE a7 


the survey everywhere. A later road followed the beach 
from Michigan City. 

This stage road, after reaching the old Indian trail at the 
south of Polk Slide, continued along the inside of the 
Dunes, following a beautiful winding path that was orig- 
inally one of the Indian trails. Following past the present 
Tremont, and through the meadow back of Mount Tom, 
crossing the Valparaiso Road there; then, trending to the 
southwest a little, it skirted the edge of a hollow in which 
was located Hobart’s old mill of 1835. From there it 
crossed Fort Creek and ascended the hill where the mill 
dam was formerly made, and where Little Fort was built 
about 1750 or 1755. 

From here it followed the south side of the Dunes, 
through the site of old City West and the ancient Little 
Fort territory of the French-Indian and Revolutionary 
Wars; going past the present Waverly Beach Road, passing 
on the south side of the Dunes through Portchester and 
Mineral Springs, and through the beautiful Cowles Tama- 
rack Swamp, where the country road is still visible in spots. 
Mr. Green says that when he was a boy, fifty years ago, 
there was a fine corduroy road extending through the 
swamp, and that it was used a number of years after that. 

The road then passed on the side of the hill along the 
swamp until it reached the present Oak Hill Road at the 
Dunes, and connecting with the old Chicago Post Road 
there, went to the beach near Dune Park, and thence to 
Chicago along the beach. This old road is still used occa- 
sionally by teams to carry supplies to cottages on the beach. 

The government, later in the ’forties, changed this road, 
and built the newer Detroit-Chicago Road, northeast from 


78 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Michigan City on the north side of the Calumet Ridge or 
Beach, and continued it in a southwest direction until it 
reached the Calumet River at Culver’s Point, named after 
the hotel-keeper, Mr. Culver. This was a short distance 
west of the junction of Deep River and a little southeast 
of Dune Park. 

The river valley at this point is very wide, and in early 
times it was flooded the year around. It was shallow there, 
and a bridge, called Long Bridge or Corduroy Bridge, made 
of piles and poles, was built there by the government engi- 
neers, extending from bank to bank, just west of the present 
bridge at that point. It was very long and very shaky be- 
cause the young trees and poles were not very solid. Some 
authorities give it as sixty and others as eighty rods long. 
One old lady, who went over this bridge when a little girl, 
said it was so long and so very shaky she feared it would 
break and drown them all. 

A later road from Michigan City was made by following 
the old road on the inside of the Dunes through Dune Park, 
along the northern shore of Long Lake where the stage 
road divided. One road went over the Dunes a few miles, 
making a very pretty road still to be traced as a trail, that 
came out to the beach about a mile east of Miller, near the 
old Berry’s Tavern of 1833, and then continued along the 
beach to Chicago. 

The branch road that became the Michigan City-Tolleston 
Road, followed an Indian trail along the Dunes through 
Miller, and along the Tolleston Ridge, passing through 
Tolleston and Hessville along the ridge to Illinois in a west- 
erly direction, and northwest to Chicago, as the Michigan 


PIONEER LIFE 79 


City Road, crossing the Calumet River at Riverdale, on the 
new Riverdale Bridge. 

This bridge, by the way, was put up a couple of years 
after Clark Mathews, the hunter and ferryman at River- 
dale, left that place for the reason, as he told Perriam, that 
the neighbors were getting “‘too blamed thick’; and, like 
Daniel Boone, he “trekked out west where he could breathe 
freely.” 

This Michigan Road, from Riverdale, joined at Vin- 
cennes Avenue and Fighty-seventh Street the Blue Island- 
Vincennes Road, which was a plank road laid down in 1852, 
and reached from Blue Island to Lake Street. Mr. Ferdi- 
nand Schapper, recently deceased, who was the leading his- 
torian of the Blue Island region, states that Blue Island 
was so called because it was surrounded by water, either 
river, creek or marsh, and the mist constantly rising gave a 
strong, hazy, bluish tint to the high land. 

This plank road followed the Vincennes Trail, which was 
used by the people coming from the East. Some of them 
used the old Chicago Road from Michigan City, crossing at 
Culver’s Point, and instead of turning north to Thornton, 
traveled west a few miles farther to Homewood, or Old 
Thornton, thence to Blue Island and went via the Vincennes 
Trail to Chicago. Others took the Sauk Trail from Detroit, 
passing through Niles, LaPorte, Door Village, Westville, 
Dyer and, going west to the Vincennes Trail, took that road 
to Chicago, passing through Chicago Heights, or Bloom, 
Homewood and Blue Island on the way. Some went west 
from Bloom to Joliet and took the Ogden route to Chicago. 

Mr. Schapper relates that at times the roads between 


8o THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Blue Island and Chicago were so flooded that for months 
at a time it was impossible for teams to go through, and 
Chicago travelers were compelled to try other roads, or 
the lake shore; and for that reason a plank road to Chicago 
was a necessity. . 

Jonathan Perriam, who lived at Wildwood, on the Calu- 
met, at One Hundred Thirtieth Street, states that in 1840 
there were but three houses between his home and Chicago: 
the Eleven-Mile House, or Smith’s Tavern, State and 
Ninety-third Streets; Jackson, evidently the blacksmith, lo- 
cation unknown; and Myrick’s Tavern on Cottage Grove 
Avenue near Thirty-fourth Street where the two trails, 
Michigan City-Vincennes and South Chicago, came to- 
gether. Myrick’s Tavern was still in existence in 1868, and 
possibly later. The Eleven-Mile House is still there, and 
is used as a residence. The author, when on a skating trip 
one very cold day from Normal Park across the great 
Winnemuc Swamp, took dinner there in 1873. Fifteen 
below zero! 

In 1852 when the plank road from Chicago to Blue 
Island was put down, it followed the road from Myrick’s 
down Cottage Grove Avenue to Lake Street. 

Mr. Schapper also says that in 1851 there was not a single 
settler between Chicago and Blue Island with the exception 
of the Wilcox home near Vincennes Avenue and One Hun- 
dred Third Street, and two taverns east of South Engle- 
wood. He refers here to the Ten-Mile House and the 
Eleven-Mile House. 

Mendenhall, in his map of Illinois of 1856, shows the 
following as the early settlements between Chicago and 
Indiana : 


PIONEER LIFE 81 


I. Junction, at Englewood, where the Lake Shore and 
Rock Island Railroads joined and went into Chicago 
on a common right-of-way. 

2. Calumet, or the Holland Settlement, now Roseland, 
on Michigan Avenue and One Hundred Seventh 
Street. 

3. Portland, or Blue Island; called Portland because 
Peter Barton and others laid out a subdivision on the 
southeastern part of the Blue Island Ridge and ex- 
tended it to the Calumet River. This soon failed and 
the old name of Blue Island was restored. 


The Calumet River at that time was so deep and wide 
that sizable vessels and small steamers came up it to Blue 
Island, though very seldom up Stony Brook. Some of 
these vessels even went up the Calumet River to Thorn 
Creek, which was forty feet wide at the mouth and pretty 
deep, and went up that creek some distance, getting grain, 
hay and lumber. 

Chicago at this time, about 1830, commenced to boom 
very rapidly, and in 1833 it had increased so much in popu- 
lation that it took unto itself the dignity of a town. It be- 
came a city in 1837. 

The news soon spread over the country that the Illinois 
and Michigan Canal had actually been started on the fourth 
of July, 1836. Gurdon Hubbard, who was one of the canal 
commissioners and the father of the Illinois and Michigan 
Canal, wielded the spade that started the canal though the 
work was not completed until 1848. 

Immediately a great rush to Chicago took place. Prop- 
erty went up with the boom; roads were cut through the 
Dunes and wooded regions leading to Chicago. Pioneers 
from the Northern States began to come by the thousands, 


82 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


seeking land in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, lowa 
and other places. The center of business was Chicago. The 
main travel was through the Dunes, and along the old sand 
ridges of Lake Chicago a little to the south of the Calumet 
River. People from all over the country went wild over 
Chicago property, and plenty of land, much of it worthless, 
was sold to eastern people at fabulous prices. This boom 
extended for miles, even to the Dunes. 

To show how wide-spread the booming of Chicago was 
and how the colored prospectuses flooded the country the 
writer gives the following little story. 

Mr. John Lloyd Stephens, the great American explorer, 
who was the first traveler to explore thoroughly the ruins 
in Central America and Yucatan, had also done a great deal 
of exploring later in Egypt, the Holy Land and Arabia; 
and his book, published by Harper in 1837, gives some 
illustrations drawn by himself with descriptions, which make 
it an interesting and valuable book. In it he speaks about 
his visit to Mt. Sinai, in order to see the celebrated copy 
of the Bible, the Codex Sinaiaticus, at that time the oldest 
known edition of the Bible. 

There is a large monastery up there and when he visited 
it, and explained his object, as wishing to see the most 
celebrated copy of the Bible in the world, the abbot was 
much gratified at his praise and brought the valued manu- 
script in himself. Mr. Stephens was greatly interested in 
it. It was beautifully painted in many different colors; 
and he says that when he first saw it, he was startled because 
in its striking assortment of rich colors, it was so brilliant 
that it reminded him of one of the new maps of the City 
of Chicago! This was evidently written about the year 














ATTACKING THE ForeEstT 





PIONEER LIFE 83 


1835 or 1836 and shows to what heights of fame Chicago 
had attained, even at that early period. It was even then 
entitled to the name “Windy City.” 

The success of Chicago not only attracted immigrants 
from the Northern States, but it also stimulated a number 
of rival cities who thought they had as good opportunities 
for settlers as Chicago. Among these that thought they 
could surpass Chicago were three cities in the Dunes: In- 
diana City, at the mouth of the Grand Calumet, at Miller; 
City West at the mouth of Fort Creek, and Michigan City 
at the mouth of Trail Creek. All of these streams were 
much larger then than now. 

Mr. J. O. Bowers, one of the leading lawyers of Gary, in 
describing Indiana City, Indiana, and City West, says that 
the main plat of Indiana City seems to have been recorded 
January 4, 1838. This plat was signed by Robert Stewart 
and others and subdivided the land immediately south of 
the Grand Calumet River. This main subdivision comprised 
twenty-five blocks. 

The plat of City West was irregular in shape and com- 
prised about fifteen or twenty acres. It was located at the 
mouth of Fort Creek and extended south a considerable dis- 
tance. This plat was recorded July 14, 1837, by J. Bigelow. 

Michigan City had a few residents, mainly fur-traders, 
in the late twenties. It was founded by Major I. C. Elston 
in 1831. It became a city in 1832. When the great rush to 
the West occurred at that time it began to be a place of some 
importance, and its inhabitants thought that a harbor should 
be constructed to give anchorage for ships and thus help 
the town. City West had the same idea and so had In- 
diana City. 


84 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


The general claim of them all was, “We shall have the 
greatest city on the lakes; will surpass Chicago, Milwaukee 
or Detroit.” Indiana City had a few houses put up, and 
the boomers of Indiana City were even worse, if possible, 
than those of Chicago, City West or Michigan City in their 
absurd claims. They relied to some extent upon the near- 
ness of this proposed town to Chicago and the canal, and 
also upon the fact that the Grand Calumet River, with a 
little dredging at the mouth, would be a larger, wider and 
deeper river than the Chicago River, Fort Creek at City 
West, or Trail Creek at Michigan City; but business did not 
materialize and few people came. In fact, Doctor Ball, in 
his history of Lake County, Indiana, thought no one came; 
that it was all a paper speculation. Old settlers, however, 
informed me that a few small houses were built then. When 
the panic of 1837 came, Indiana City was deserted, and is 
now only amemory. It has been succeeded by Miller. The 
very deep snows of 1830-31 must have been greatly instru- 
mental in widening the Hull Canal between the Calumet 
River at Hegewisch to the Little Calumet and much water 
was taken away from the river at Indiana City, thus sanding 
the outlet. Mr. Williams, a leading lawyer of Gary, thinks 
that in 1837 a small lighthouse was built near the mouth of 
the Calumet River. 

City West fared a little better. That was platted where 
Waverly Beach now is and where Little Fort of the French- 
Indian and the Revolutionary Wars was situated. Before 
the city was platted as a regular city, there was a number 
of inhabitants. A Mr. Hobart, said to be founder of 
Hobart, Indiana, erected a large lumber mill there in 1835, 
a few blocks southwest of Mount Tom, and a couple of 


PIONEER LIFE 85 


blocks directly east of the present little iron bridge at 
Waverly, at the eastern terminus of the hollow along the 
creek. It was at the foot of the bluff on which was located 
the ancient Little Fort of the Revolution. 

The speculators who were booming City West were very 
daring, and in filing their plat at Valparaiso, they had on 
it a proposed canal from Lake Michigan back to the Calumet 
River, a distance of over three miles, thus antedating by 
eighty years the great million-dollar Burns Ditch, or Calu- 
met Canal, which is to connect Lake Michigan through the 
level part of Dune Park to the Calumet River, and which is 
to be dug now that the Great War is over. 

The City West promoters were energetic and succeeded 
in luring eastern settlers by promising work at the sawmill, 
and also by declaring they were going to have the harbor 
put there by the government. An appropriation of five 
thousand dollars for a lighthouse had been voted in 1837, 
but old settlers say it was never built. 

In addition to nearly forty dwellings, some of them plas- 
tered, were three neat little hotels built to accommodate all 
the visitors this little metropolis was to shelter. They were 
the Bigelow Hotel, the Bradley Hotel and the Morse Hotel. 

The Bigelow Hotel had thirty small rooms in it, a sizable 
number for a small place. It is said by old settlers that 
Daniel Webster championed the resolution in Congress to 
have the proposed Government Harbor for Indiana placed 
at the mouth of Fort Creek; while Henry Clay was said 
to be the champion of the Michigan City claim. Old resi- 
dents claim Daniel Webster was paid five thousand dollars 
for his services to City West. 

When the panic of 1837 came, caused mainly by tre- 


86 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


mendous speculation and poor banks, the people were com- 
pelled to forsake City West to procure some kind of a living 
elsewhere. City West was forsaken so utterly that in 1840, 
some visitors, who had seen it several years before when it 
was a bustling little town, found it a veritable deserted 
village, as there was not a single person living in the whole 
town. Waverly Beach is now on this site and is booming. 
It is the property of the Morgan estate. 

As the star of City West began to wane that of Michigan 
City began to ascend. As it grew, it needed more buildings. 
Those at City West were forsaken and a number of its 
inhabitants tore down their own dwellings and moved them 
by ox team to Michigan City and helped build up new 
places there. 

Other buildings at City West, whose owners had gone 
elsewhere, were torn down and used either by the farmers 
of the neighborhood or by settlers of surrounding villages. 
New City West was thus founded in the early ’forties at the 
site of the present Tremont, and a sawmill, hotel and cooper 
shop were built there. 

Michigan City began to flourish. Its citizens were wide 
awake and advertised their little town freely. It became a 
good place for trade, for it was on the main road from 
Detroit, as well as on one from the north. Its grain mill, 
Scott’s Mill, was considered the best in the West. 

Honorable Martin T. Krueger, the patriotic mayor of 
Michigan City, in a very interesting interview a couple of 
years ago, said that when he was a little boy in the ’sixties 
he met a man whose name was either Coffin or Coughlan, 
who claimed to have lived where Michigan City now is 


PIONEER LIFE 87 


before there was any settlement there, in the ‘twenties. Mr. 
Krueger said he gave no thought to the man’s claim and it 
passed from his mind, until many years afterward he met 
this man, very old, in Michigan City. 

He remembered having met Mr. Krueger at the time and 
recalled the incident. Mr. Krueger asked the old gentleman 
if he could point out that place and he said, yes; that there 
were two mills there, a sawmill and a grist mill, both Scott’s 
Mills. Mr. Krueger drove him out and they came to a place 
known at that time as the Gould farm; but they couldn’t 
locate the place because so much of the timber had been cut 
off. Coughlan said if they could locate the old spring called 
the Marquette Spring, he was sure he could find it. For 
some time they hunted until finally at the western slope of 
the Council Grounds, the old hunter pointed to a place 
covered with a large dead pine, under which was found 
the spring. 

After having found the spring, Mr. Coughlan soon 
sighted the hill upon which he had his cabin and on going 
up to the hill found it was just across a small stream known 
as the Rummel Ditch flowing into Trail Creek; but in early 
days when Mr. Krueger was a boy it was called Cheney 
Brook, and is now so called. After crossing this small 
stream, they climbed a steep hill to the west and there at the 
top of the hill, the highest in the neighborhood, they found 
the remains of a human habitation in the forest. 

These consisted of an excavation of an old cellar and 
some stones which Coughlan had carried from Trail Creek 
to build a rough fireplace. He had lived here the life of a 
hunter and trapper, selling or bartering his fur pelts for 


88 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


such commodities as were carried by the fur-traders who 
passed along the trail and who usually camped at this spring 
because of its good water and fine position. 

From the high hill he could overlook the Marquette 
Spring, and the Council Grounds, located about two blocks 
away toward the northeast and separated from his cabin 
site by a deep little valley. He had also a sweeping view of 
the trail winding toward the west at the base of the hill. 

It is highly probable that Mr. Coughlan’s cabin was built 
on the very spot on which Jean Baptiste Point au Saible, 
the first permanent citizen of Chicago, built his cabin in 
1779, and from which cabin, at Trail Creek, he was cap- 
tured by the British and taken to Fort Mackinaw, as the 
spot was the most famous trading place on Trail Creek. It 
would be only natural that he had his cabin here so as to 
have better trade with the Indians for their furs as well 
as getting some for himself, for this was considered the 
best hunting district of the Trail Creek region. 3 

Mr. Coughlan also reported that in 1831, the year before 
the Black Hawk War, Black Hawk was at the Council 
Grounds for two or three months counseling with the Pot- 
tawottomie and Ottawa Indians and trying to persuade them 
and other Indian tribes to join him in an Indian conspiracy 
to drive the white people into the lake, but the Indians of 
these various tribes refused to have anything to do with 
the movement. Mr. Coughlan assured Mr. Krueger that 
he knew Black Hawk personally and had spoken to him a 
number of times during this visit. 

The writer had the pleasure of visiting this place several 
times and at one time Mayor Krueger not only showed the 
Council Grounds, and Marquette Spring, but also acted as 


PIONEER LIFE 89 


guide in climbing to the top of the big hill and showing the 
spot where Coughlan’s cabin (probably Au Saible’s also) 
was located and from which a lookout was possible over the 
surrounding country. There was a large hollow in the top 
of the hill, with stones and pieces of mortar in it which 
had made the chimney. It seemed very old and much used. 
At another visit, Mayor Krueger escorted Mrs. Brennan 
and myself over much of this beautiful and historic region, 
showing us the old ford and bridge site over Trail Creek, | 
and the old Detroit, Michigan and Chicago stage road of 
the early days. A branch road, much used, led west from 
the stage road through the woods to the Indian Council 
Grounds, and would indicate that travelers often used it as 
a camping-ground also. The writer dug out another much- 
used spring on the south side of the plateau. 


CHAPTER VIII 
LOG CABINS, PRAIRIE SCHOONERS AND CRIMINALS 


\WHEN the pioneer was ready to settle, he picked out a 
location on one of these high wooded ridges near a stream, 
to get material for a house as well as fuel, and if possible 
tried to be near a spring of pure water, preferring a spot 
that had good soil, and was in a district abounding with 
game. 

When the pioneer was ready for a log house, the logs 
were cut to the required size. The neighbors, when there 
were any, came to help. The logs were notched near the 
ends so that one could slide over the other and so become 
locked. 

A large chimney built of pieces of saplings from four to’ 
six feet long at the bottom, to two or three feet at the 
top, was also built on the outside of the house, with the 
fireplace often large enough to hold heavy logs. 

The roof was made of thin, rough, uneven boards, gen- 
erally smoothed some with an ax, adze or a draw-knife and 
often were nailed on the roof with wooden nails, though 
sometimes fastened with strips and sometimes thatched with 
hay and covered with logs as in England. The logs were 
often peeled to get rid of insects, and to last longer, and 
the chinks were plastered heavily. 


go 


LOG CABINS AND CRIMINALS gl 


If the family was large, an attic was arranged up-stairs ; 
to save space, a ladder was used. Bedsteads, or rather 
sleeping bunks, were made by putting up sticks in the floor, 
with cross-sticks driven in between the logs. Sometimes 
these were placed above one another, Pullman style, though 
they were not quite so comfortable. The bottom of each 
bunk was formed by putting in cross-pieces, and covering 
these with hay, corn stalks or corn husks. 

After things were in good order, and the man of the 
house had a little time, a regular bedstead was made. The 
wood generally used for this purpose was the. sassafras, 
which is exceedingly light and is ready for use, as it grows 
in sandy soil up north to small trees four or five inches 
thick; it was also considered good to keep away the insects. 
In some cases, the posts were left very high, so that the bed- 
stead could be covered with mosquito netting if desired. The 
sassafras was sometimes called the Ague Tree. 

The floor was often made of dirt, generally sand, which 
was covered in damp or cool weather with skins of animals, 
as in Lincoln’s home. But, as soon as possible, a floor was 
made of boards, generally puncheons, which were split logs 
with the upper part smoothed off by ax, adz or drawing- 
knife. These were fitted together with strips, so as to make 
a fairly level floor. 

In many of these log houses not a single iron nail was 
used; these were generally used later, when better roads 
and more traders appeared. The writer has seen many of 
these log houses and found a number fastened together with 
wooden pegs of pin-oak which is strong and straight. 

The house-raising bee was an occasion for great enjoy- 
ment, some of the neighbors coming from many miles away. 


92 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Between times of heavy work, they rested and enjoyed 
themselves in all kinds of athletic sports and in shooting, 
which was a very necessary accomplishment, for they were 
compelled to shoot straight or go hungry. 

The expert shots were told to bring in plenty of game, 
since these house-raising: bees generally lasted about two or 
three days; and the women-folk put upa dinner that makes 
our mouths water to think of; it was generally prepared out- 
side at the camp-fire or barbecue. Bear and venison, wild 
turkeys, partridges and prairie chickens, wild duck and geese 
and possibly a young wild swan, the latter said by con- 
noisseurs to be the most savory of all water fowl, squirrels, 
‘possum and rabbits, were on the menu. 

Then after their toil these pioneers danced to the tunes 
of Old Dan Tucker and Money Musk. Truly the “good old 
times,’ with their many dire privations and perils, of which 
the average American to-day knows absolutely nothing, did 
have some compensations in the innocent pleasure and rec- 
reation. It must be remembered that many of these pioneers 
were of the very best American stock. They came West 
to have a fuller opportunity; just as, their ancestors did 
in the East a century or, more before. Many of them were 
younger sons and daughters. Many were strong, enter- 
prising people from across the water, who joined hands 
with the Americans in conquering the wilderness, and ex- 
tending the American commonwealth. 

In moving in their great prairie schooners every pound 
counted and little furniture was included. They always 
carried some kitchen utensils, plates, etc. These were gen- 
erally of pewter or tin; crockery ware was too easily broken, 
and too heavy. Almost the entire equipment was made of 


LOG CABINS AND CRIMINALS 93 


wood, from hollowed out cups and saucers to large bowls. 
In building a table a very large stump would be left for the 
dinner table; after a time boards would be cut and placed 
on the stump to make it larger. Seats would be made by 
taking a fine pine or tamarack tree and sawing it into proper 
lengths, carefully taking off the bark. If a large seat was 
needed, short boards were made and nailed on them to suit 
the owner. 

Many styles were worked out by the pioneers, both the 
men and the women, for the pioneer wife and mother was 
able to help build a house, till the soil, milk the cows, kill 
wild animals, including bear and panther, for defense, food 
or furs; and if necessary, Indians also. In addition to 
these things, she worked at such minor trifles as keeping 
house; baking, either in a Dutch oven made of tin, in the 
fireplace, or in an oven constructed in the chimney just 
over the fireplace. 

The pioneer wife was also an efficient business manager, 
able to reduce work to the minimum and results to the 
maximum. One very sensible thing that distinguished this 
housewife was her many-sided efficiency. To save extra 
work in caring for dishes, some of these progressive house- 
wives had their husbands construct a table two inches thick, 
and hollow out spaces for food, which made housework 
much easier. ‘These tables were kept spotlessly clean by 
constant scouring with sand. Spoons and forks were also 
made of wood when necessary; also of cow’s horn. 

The pioneer mother was also a tailoress. She may have 
brought some cloth along. If not, she was obliged to de- 
pend upon wild animals for clothing until she could buy 
cloth, raise flax for linen, or sheep for their wool. She and 


94 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


her husband learned the best way of dressing the skins of 
the wild animals killed; the way to make the deer skin 
pliable and soft; to make clothing suitable and comfortable. 

One of the most satisfactory of the mills for grinding 
grain was a hollowed-out white-oak stump, which contained 
the grain to be ground after it had been thrashed out by the 
rude flails which consisted of a long pole cut in two parts, 
connected with a hinge of leather. Near this stump a tough 
young sapling, preferably of hickory, was selected, the 
branches trimmed off and the top bent down and tied to a 
heavy stone or oak block that fitted the stump loosely. This 
was jerked up and down until the grain was pounded fine. 

The pioneer housewives baked their own bread, cakes, 
cookies, biscuits, etc., and could not be surpassed by the 
present Domestic Science experts. Their great breakfast 
food was mush; samp, which is cracked corn, was also much 
used. Hominy was hulled corn. Gurdon Hubbard says 
that the Indians and trappers found dried corn with fat 
more nourishing than meat. 

The people who occupy the beautiful West to-day do not 
realize the hardships that the pioneers were obliged to 
undergo in settling it. In addition to the danger arising 
from the Indians, wild animals, bad roads and bad fords, 
was a still greater one after the Indians had disappeared— 
the many criminals who infested the highways leading from 
the East. 

These criminals had their great headquarters in a cave 
on the Ohio River in Illinois, called Cave in the Rock, 
under the leadership of John A. Murrell, the great outlaw. 
He had at one time twenty thousand members in his bands, 
and they terrorized the Mississippi Valley. They had 


LOG CABINS AND CRIMINALS 95 


developed their criminality to such perfection that there 
was a complete organization in different branches, and all 
under the direction of Murrell. For instance, the horse 
thieves in the Mississippi Valley had an organization, the 
Horse Thieves’ Association—with branches in every state, 
and it was the business of these different centers to ship 
off and sell stolen horses and also furnish funds to take 
care of members arrested for such thievery, though very 
often the courts were spared the expense of such a trial, 
as the people who captured them very often used “Lynch 
Law” and hanged them immediately. 

The Mississippi Valley in those pioneer days was espe- 
cially cursed with highwaymen who frequented the traveled 
routes from the East and who were found all over the West. 
These criminals did not scruple to murder immigrants, 
sometimes killing the entire family and running off with 
their stock and goods. These outlaws frequently consorted 
with other criminals and had a joint camp or retreat. They 
also had a highly developed organization in every state and 
territory. 

Among the early explorers who traveled through the 
Chicago Dune region in the ’thirties and ’forties was my 
mother’s uncle, Alexander Freeman, whose folks had come 
from Milford, New Haven Colony, Connecticut, to Newark, 
New Jersey, in 1666. He kept a hotel, called for years 
Freeman’s Tavern, at Perth Amboy, opposite New York 
City. 

He did a great deal of exploring in Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa. He often 
spoke of these bands of criminals. He was athletic, always 
went well armed, was well mounted and was seldom 


96 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


troubled. He traveled through the Dunes a number of 
times on his western trips. 

Here is one of his experiences. While taking supper at 
a farmer’s house on the top of the Alleghany Mountains 
in Pennsylvania, he noticed a large piece of maple sugar 
at the end of a string, which hung down from the rafter 
over the housewife. When the hostess asked him which 
he preferred, “long sweetnin’”’ or “short sweetnin’,” he 
said he did not wish any; for he did not know just what 
was meant. 

The next guest said he would take “short sweetnin’,” 
whereupon the lady of the house bit off a piece of maple 
sugar and dropped it into his cup. The next man took 
“long sweetnin’,’ which was molasses, poured from a 
pitcher. Uncle Aleck took “long sweetnin’.”’ 

Mr. Freeman, in his western trips, came upon many traces 
of “Johnny Appleseed,” John Chapman, that nature lover 
and humanitarian, who, in the latter part of the eighteenth 
century and early part of the nineteenth, was in the habit 
of getting appleseeds from the cider mills of Western Penn- 
sylvania and planting them in rich glades, sometimes coming 
pretty far north. The new settlers in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Kentucky, etc., found many-.of those apple orchards, which 
proved of the greatest help to them. The Indians protected 
Johnny Appleseed in his work, considering him a little bit 
touched mentally. Mr. Freeman’s reports of his explora- 
tions in the ‘thirties and ’forties were of great assistance 
in telling prospective settlers where to go. Many of the 
people from Northern Jersey, Pennsylvania and Southern 
New York, using his information, came out West via 
Detroit, following the Dunes and Chicago roads to Indiana, 


LOG CABINS AND CRIMINALS 97 


Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as more 
southern routes. 

The following anecdote about Bishop Kemper, my 
father’s cousin, the pioneer Episcopal Bishop of the Chi- 
cago Dune region, we can not vouch for. It sounds like 
a ministers’ banquet yarn, and was told by a Baptist clergy- 
man who met the bishop in Mississippi in those pioneer 
days, later being published in a magazine. The bishop was 
the traveling Episcopal missionary for the West and went 
everywhere, hearing services and founding churches, just as 
his Methodist colleague, Bishop Peter Cartright, did. 
Kemper Hall in Kenosha is named after him. He was a 
magnetic preacher, and a noted athlete, and was greatly liked 
throughout the West. Occasionally he was obliged to act 
as a militant Christian and thrash some unregenerate church 
disturber, just as Peter Cartright did. The Baptist minister 
says he met the bishop down in Mississippi and that the 
latter had quite a large amount of gold and silver with him 
that had been donated for church purposes on his swing 
around the circle from Wisconsin, and that the bishop was 
on his way home. 

While traveling through Mississippi, they were held up. 
When the bishop told the robber he was an Episcopal bishop, 
he was surprised and gave back the money, saying that 
was his church, and he could not think of robbing a friend. 
He added a contribution, declaring he was glad their church 
was prospering so nicely. 

He then gave the bishop a most cordial letter recommend- 
ing him to the robber’s friends, one of whom tried soon 
afterward to rob the bishop. When the latter showed his 
letter, the robber was very much ashamed, and said that 


98 THE WONDERS OF THE, DUNES 


this letter would carry the bishop through the whole West. 
On the bishop’s asking the robber the business of Mr. 
Brown, the writer of the letter, he was told that Brown 
was the President of the Mississippi Valley Highwaymen’s 
Association and others! 

The bishop says that they were obliged to show the 
letter a number of times before they reached Chicago, and 
always received a royal welcome with liberal contributions. 

While Bishop Kemper told us many tales of his travels 
in the West, he never told us of this episode. It sounds 
like Tom Fagg’s trip in Lorna Doone. 

This Mr. Brown is probably meant for Murrell himself. 
But, as Murrell had been captured and sent to prison be- 
fore this, and his gangs, including many prominent men, 
broken up, it could not have been he. Many criminals were 
left, however, and they carried out things on a smaller 
scale. 

Father’s brother, Sheriff S. M. Brennan, traveled through 
this Chicago Dune region many times in early days, and 
lived for many years in Michigan, being a sheriff there in 
the ’forties and ’fifties. A friend says that when she was 
a small girl in Michigan in the early “fifties, she can remem- 
ber Sheriff Brennan coming from another county, and rid- 
ing through their county past her farm at the head of his 
posse after a band of horse thieves who were heading for 
the Indiana Dune region, which harbored many criminals. 
Their headquarters were at Pine, in the swamps near Gary. 
He caught them, brought them back and had them sent to 
prison. He was a big fearless man, and with a troop of 
deputies of the same type, cleaned out the criminals from 


LOG CABINS AND CRIMINALS 99 


his county. Other sheriffs throughout the country did the 
same and wiped out these criminal organizations. 

The third great criminal organization was the Counter- 
feiters’ Organization, under Murrell’s direction at first. 
This organization, while as wide-spread as the others, had 
its own headquarters to insure secrecy and safety. The 
audacity of the counterfeiters of those days was really 
phenomenal in its boldness. The wild-cat banks were very 
plentiful at that time, and the counterfeiters had no difficulty 
at all in issuing millions of dollars of counterfeit money on 
mythical banks. Many of the regular small banks could 
not be located, let alone tracing up these mythical creations. 
In many cases, the counterfeiters and other criminals were 
in collusion with some of the leading citizens and bankers, 
as Sheriff Brennan learned. 


CHAP LEILA 
JOSEPH BAILLY—THE FUR TRADER 


DuRING the ‘twenties and ’thirties, the most important 
place in Northwestern Indiana was Bailly’s Trading Post 
on the Calumet River, near the present Porter. This great 
fur-trader, Joseph Bailly, was born in Canada, and came of 
good stock. 

In 1814, he received a license from Governor Harrison 
as the head fur-trader of the Calumet Region for ten years; 
and in 1822 established his home and trading post on the 
north side of the Calumet River, about a mile southeast of 
Baileytown, Indiana, and a half-mile north of the present 
Porter. 

He very soon worked up a fur trade which was so profit- 
able that he established a trading post at Baton Rouge which 
promised to be a very good investment, since he received 
furs from all over the South—buffalo, bear, deer, fox, 
marten, and even seal skins from the Pacific. He became 
one of the best known fur-traders in the country, from 
Quebec to Santa Fe. | 

His granddaughter, Miss Frances Howe, states in her 
book, The Story of an Old French Homestead in the North- 
west, that between Detroit and Chicago, in those early days, 
there were but two places where a traveler could stop over 


100 


JOSEPH BAILLY—FUR-TRADER IOI 


night, one at White Pigeon, Michigan, and the other at the 
Bailly Trading Post. 

The Dakota-Wisconsin branch of the great Sauk Trail 
ran through Mr. Bailly’s place from the northwest past 
Chesterton, where it joined the main Sauk Trail to the 
southeast. It was but a few feet from his house. The 
Pottawottomie Trail went northeast through the woods of 
the Calumet Ridge to the Council Grounds at Michigan City, 
where it divided, one branch coming north to St. Joe, the 
other going east to Detroit. 

Bailly’s home was famous for its hospitality and its hand- 
some daughters, as it was the only place on the Chicago Road 
west of White Pigeon large enough to accommodate travelers. 

Mr. Bailly purchased from the government a great deal 
of land, over two thousand acres, some of it situated at 
Baileytown, Tremont, and a large tract on the Grand Calu- 
met called Bailly’s Harbor, at the present Miller. Much of 
the land on the Grand Calumet was suitable for a village, 
and Mr. Bailly hoped to have one located there, but it did 
not materialize. 

The Bailly family saw many Indians pass along the old 
North Sauk Trail in front of the house. Miss Howe says 
of the trail and the passers-by: ‘There, too, was the 
Indian Trail, a deep, wide rut, made by centuries of pacing 
feet, which the traveling Indians never forsook for white 
men’s roads, but always used for their coming and going. 
Their warriors of a tribe in full formation, in a straight 
single file procession, always made a showy pageant.” 

But the most brilliant array of savage glory ever wit- 
nessed here, according to Miss Howe, was on the occasion 
when the Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Dakota In- 


102 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


dians passed by arrayed as if for battle, on their way to 
some general meeting near Detroit, across the line in Can- 
ada at Fort Malden, to receive their annual present of goods 
from the British government. 


“First came the Menominees, then the Winnebagoes, 
then the Foxes, divided according to their totems, and at- 
tired in all their bravery. The single file passed on in per- 
fect silence and unbroken order, not one looking either to 
the right or left; with one uniform stride, not varying one 
inch, one from another. 

“This part of the procession the family viewed from the 
veranda without the slightest fear; but when the servant 
_ whispered to grandfather: ‘This is the last band of Foxes; 
the Dacotahs are next,’ the iadies stepped quietly into the 
house, where the shutters in the lower story were already 
closed and bolted. The window shades of threaded rushes 
in the second story were lowered, and the muslin curtains 
were drawn for the Dacotahs, as the Sacs and Sioux were 
called by other Indians, were tribes that did not respect 
women. In this, they differed from the eastern Indians, 
who might murder women, but never wronged them. 

“The Dacotahs, however, formed the grandest part of 
the pageant; their paint was more brilliant, the war bon- 
nets more expansive, and the display of arms unique. Femi- 
nine curiosity peered through the crevices in the window 
shades at the fine stalwart figures of tall, lithe, athletic war- 
riors of most commanding appearance. 

“Each warrior’s blanket, passing under his arm and over 
the shoulder of the other arm, was fastened together by 
a showy piece of burnished silver. Bows and arrows hung 
at their backs, one hand grasped a bunch of javelins, and 
the other balanced a rifle slung over the shoulder. 

“When the last Dacotah had crossed the river, and dis- 
appeared in the oak woods, there was a sense of profcund 
relief felt by all who had seen the broken line of warriors 


JOSEPH BAILLY 





FUR-TRADER 103 


of all these tribes, passing in a steady stream for two days 
and a half.” 


This account was told Miss Howe by her mother, who, as 
Miss Rose Bailly, had seen the passing of this great pageant. 
If this wonderful pageant in its colorful array, really took 
two days and a half, even at broken intervals, to pass the 
Bailly Post, it was undoubtedly more imposing than the 
great Dunes Pageant itself, on June 3, 1917. From Miss 
Howe’s description one can almost see these Indians gliding 
along the trail through swamps and forests and fording 
over the Chicago and Calumet Rivers on their distant way 
from Illinois, lowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Dakota! 

Mr. Bailly was very much interested in christianizing the 
Indians. In fact, he was a combination of the missionary 
and the fur-trader. He did much work toward converting 
the Indians, and he went so far in his splendid religious 
work that he translated the New Testament into the Pot- 
tawottomie language. Mr. J. L. Bowers, the Gary lawyer, 
has a copy of this very rare New Testament. 

Mr. Joseph J. Thompson, of Chicago, a noted historian, 
who is editor-in-chief of the Jllinois Catholic Historical 
Review, says that the Bailly family was one of the most 
noted in all the region between Detroit and Chicago; noted 
not only for its prominence, and the culture and beauty 
of its daughters, but for its religious zeal, and that many 
Catholic people made use of religious services at its famous 
little chapel. 

One day a man stopped at the homestead to see Mr. 
Bailly in regard to some property wrich the latter had 
taken for some furs. Mr. John Morgan said he thought it 


104 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


was the old Hub Clothing Store place, on State, from 
Jackson Boulevard to Quincy Street, on the west side of 
the street. This man was very insolent and abusive, declar- 
ing that he had a good claim to that property, etc. At night 
the man went to the inn which had been built to relieve the 
homestead, and was on the old Detroit-Chicago Road, below 
the ridge, just east of Oak Hill. Here he filled up on liquor, 
and said he would start off early by stage and would get 
every lawyer in Chicago on his side. 

This was reported to the Baillys and early the next morn- 
ing, at four o’clock, Rose Bailly, a beautiful young girl, 
got in readiness to go to Chicago to checkmate his dastardly 
plot to seize the property. She was a skilled horsewoman, 
and her favorite horse was an old racer that was faster 
than any horse in the Chicago Dune region. 

She mounted this and quietly picked her way out, taking 
the old original trail still to be seen for part of the way, 
winding through the low woods, over the hills across the 
swamps, over the Dunes to the beach, and then to Chicago. 
She followed old Indian trails, all bending toward Chicago, 
stopping for dinner at Gibson’s Tavern, which was near 
the present Froebel School, Gary. She reached Chicago 
well ahead of the stage, after a fifty-mile ride that would 
have taxed the most skilful horseman. 

The guests of the Sauganash Hotel were sitting on the 
porch that afternoon when their attention was aroused by 
a horseman galloping toward the hotel. As the rider came 
nearer they saw to their great surprise a beautiful young 
lady on a race-horse. Mark Beaubien, the genial host, 
rushed forward and greeted her in amazement. He was 


JOSEPH BAILLY—FUR-TRADER 105 


an old friend of the family and had been at the Bailly 
homestead many times, as had the Indian Chiefs Shabona, 
Topinabe, Winnemuc, Black Partridge, Billy Caldwell, 
Simon Pokagon and Robinson. 

Miss Bailly told him the reason that she had taken that 
terrible trip alone through the Dunes, that were beset 
by criminals, Indians and wild animals. Mark Beaubien 
introduced her to his guests as the daughter of a close 
friend, a French gentleman, owning a great estate in North- 
ern Indiana. After a good meal, she was introduced to 
one of the leading lawyers of Chicago, probably Judge 
Dean Caton, who took up her father’s case, and pushed it 
through successfully, with the assistance of William B. 
Ogden, who was the leading real-estate man of Chicago at 
that time, and later the mayor. When the stage arrived 
with the sharper, Bailly’s title had been made perfect, to the 
great discomfiture of the former. 

Mr. John Morgan, of Chesterton, said that the chief 
clerk for Mr. Ogden was a fine Connecticut Yankee from 
Hartford, by the name of Francis Howe, and that he was 
very much interested in this beautiful, fearless equestrienne ; 
so much that he became a frequent visitor at the Dunes 
and the Bailly homestead. He evidently made a favorable 
impression upon the fair lady, for it was not long before 
she became known as Mrs. Francis Howe. 

In the fall of 1830, an old Pottawottomie chief visited 
the Baillys and told them there was going to be an unusually 
severe winter, and that they should obtain twice as much 
wood as usual. He further said that these severe winters 
traveled in a cycle of eighty years, and one was due at that 


106 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


time. The old chief was either a good guesser, or an un- 
usually keen observer; for the winter of 1830-31 was known 
as the “winter of the deep snow.” 

The snow was very deep and is given by Doctor Hildreth 
as forty-eight inches, with intense cold, way below zero. 
In the spring of 1831, tremendous floods of rains came. It 
washed so much dirt into the Calumet Valley between Lake 
Calumet and Hegewisch that the Calumet River was forced 
back a half-mile to the southeast. It had previously been 
near Lake Calumet. 

Alexander Robinson, the famous Indian chief, who was 
half French and half Pottawottomie, was a very close friend 
of the Baillys, and at one time worked for Mr. Bailly. He 
often visited them at their home and joined in their religious 
services. He was in 1829 elected chief of the combined 
Pottawottomies, Ottawas, and Chippewas or Ojibwas. The 
tribes had so diminished that these three tribes had united 
and, as Mrs. Bailly had been the daughter of an Ottawa 
chief, and Mr. Bailly was very well known to all the Indian 
tribes, they were respected very much by the Indians, and 
the Indian chiefs visited them often. Bailly’s Post came 
next to Kinzie’s home as the great visiting place of the 
Indian chiefs of the Chicago Dune region. 

The Indian chiefs told Mr. Bailly, when he proposed to 
build a fur depot at Baton Rouge and trade with the Indians 
of the West, that the Empire of the Montezumas still ruled 
all of North America, and that they were most tyrannical 
oppressors. They said, “We are not ungrateful or treacher- 
ous; but if our rulers tell us to go on the war-path, we 
must, sparing neither friend nor foe. You must not find 
the secret routes over the plains on go to the Far West. If 


JOSEPH BAILLY—FUR-TRADER 107 


you do, we must kill you.” The Indian chiefs also said that 
messengers from the “Sandy Country” (New Mexico and 
Arizona) could come to the southern end of Lake Michigan 
in four or five days by relays of swift ponies. 

There was a pact of unity between the Aztecs and the 
Iroquois Indians, who came from the South and may have 
descended from some colonies of ancient Mexico or Central 
America. Doctor Frank Cushing, of the Government 
Bureau of Ethnology, while studying the Moqui Indians in 
Arizona, was admitted as a member of their priesthood, 
and took part in their ancient ceremony of carrying some © 
sacred salt water of the Pacific Ocean to the Iroquois In- 
dians in New York, who had brought some of their sacred 
salt water from the Atlantic. Here, with mystic rites, the 
water of the Pacific and the water of the Atlantic were 
mixed together and then poured on the ground, as a libation 
to the memory of the meeting of the rulers of the old mother 
country in Mexico with the distinguished daughter state in 
the East. Cushing says it is an ancient ceremony, many 
centuries old. 

One of the most sacred shrines of the Aztecs was that of 
the twin war gods, male and female, in Arizona, on San 
Juan River; for centuries pilgrimages were made to it by 
the Aztecs and their subject tribes; perhaps by the ancient 
Toltecs, who may have been the founders of the ancient 
Chinese Colony of Fu Shan. Ancient Chinese records often 
speak of Fu Shan, an old colony they claimed was in a 
beautiful country, thousands of miles east of China, across 
the waters. Recent excavations, near Mexico City, show 
that some statues, dug in the Toltec ruins, had Chinese faces 
and eyes! A United States surgeon, Doctor William 


108 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Matthews, stationed in Arizona, tells in the American Natu- 
ralist of 1886, about this mystic shrine, as given by Navaho 
Indians, who knew its location and history. The female 
god was probably the reflection of the first image. 

They said it was at a wild bluff, overlooking a very deep 
ravine. Here, the Indians said, the war gods showed them- 
selves at certain times to their worshipers. The Indians 
assured the doctor that these pilgrims came from all over 
the country. Doctor Matthews was strongly of the opin- 
ion that the appearance of the gods was due to some local 
physical phenomenon. The writer, some years before, read 
in a magazine that a clergyman who had been exploring 
in that neighborhood rested with his party on the bank of 
a high bluff. Looking down into a deep ravine which was 
misty, he saw a reflection of a man in the mist, somewhat 
like the Brocken, only much clearer. 

He had seen something similar; but the remarkable part 
of it was that around it was a pale circular rainbow. It 
was a regular “Circle of Ulloa’ without the brilliant colors 
of the latter, though there were a few places with some 
color. To make sure it was their own reflection and refrac- 
tion, the traveler and his companions went through various 
motions and the images outlined in the mists of the deep 
ravine responded, showing that these were the images of 
the people on the bluff. The traveler had never heard of a 
“Circle of Ulloa;” called it a “circular rainbow.” 

DeUlloa was a Spanish governor of Panama, and in one 
of his trips through New Granada—Columbia—he was told 
by one of the Indian eifides that a few miles away, in a very 
deep valley of the Andes Mountains, images could be seen 
at certain times, with a most beautiful colored ring about 











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JOSEPH BAILLY—FUR-TRADER 109 


each one, and it was thought this was the right weather for 
them to be seen. 

Governor DeUlloa marched there with his officers, and 
his guides asked him to dismount and stand at a certain 
spot and look into this deep chasm. He did so and gazed 
down many thousand feet; mist was filling the ravine, and 
his reflection was thrown upon it, which refracted it to a 
great size, with a magnificent circular ring surrounding him, 
so bright and prismatic that it seemed to be a beautiful 
circular rainbow, made up of brilliant sparkling gems, float- 
ing in the mist. 

He recognized that it was a reflection with refraction of 
himself, and experimented until he was thoroughly con- 
vinced of it. He then had this phenomenon written down 
and fully described by his secretary, and sent it to Spain. 
The wise men there were deeply interested, as it was the 
first time such a brilliant phenomenon had ever been 
recorded. This circular, prismatic rainbow, only seen at a 
very great depth on a misty day, was called in his honor, 
the “Circle of Ulloa.” 

It is probable that at certain times the shrine of the Aztec 
War God also showed color in its “Circle of Ulloa,” as 
this would make it even more remarkable. The Indian 
chiefs told much about the Aztecs and their rules to Mr. 
Bailly, and said that some of the Aztec priesthood had 
fled to the desert regions, from Mexico City, and by their 
snake worship retained power over the Indians of North 
America, often coming here as visitors. They also told 
Bailly that the white people would never have peace here, 
until they captured the Sandy Country, and controlled the 
Aztecs, who gave orders to the Indians to kill the whites. 


110 THE’WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Doctor William Matthews, the American surgeon, in his 
article, said that Thoyetli, the sacred shrine, was somewhere 
in Utah, at the junction of some creek with San Juan River, 
in a very hilly or mountainous country. He also says that 
the Navajos made trips to this distant shrine whenever 
they were ready to go on any special war trip and brought 
some sacred cigarettes to the war gods. If they were not 
able to go there, they faced in that direction, prayed to the 
war gods, and burned the sacred cigarettes. 

The Aztecs and other tribes made similar trips to this 
distant shrine, for it seemed to be the Mecca for them all. 
The Moquis, or Mokis, may have been the Druids of the 
Indian race, since by their superior magic and skill they 
evidently dominated the other Indian tribes. It is highly 
probable that some of the medicine men of these other tribes 
went there to study, as Bailly said the medicine men from 
the Sandy Country came to the Chicago Dune region. 

The writer sent in an article to the American Naturalst 
showing that the clergyman exploring the San Juan region 
had unknowingly stumbled upon the sacred shrine of 
Thoyetli, which, as far as is known, has never been revealed 
toa white man. It might be at the junction of Montezuma 
Creek, or possibly Aztec Creek, with the San Juan River. 
Both are deep and rocky. The article sent in by the writer 
seemed to satisfy Doctor Matthews, as some time later he 
sent me his booklet on the Moki snake dance. 

Possibly some one of our readers will be able to work 
out the connection between the Aztecs and the Indians of 
the Chicago Dune region, and show to what extent our 
Indians were under the influence of the Aztecs and their 


JOSEPH BAILLY—FUR-TRADER LU 


descendants, the Moki priests. Pottawottomie, according to 
Jacob Piatt Dunn, the Secretary of the Indiana Historical 
Society, means “Guardian of the Fire.” 

Miss Frances Howe was a graduate of St. Mary’s Col- 
lege, South Bend, and the author of The Story of an Old 
French Homestead in the Northwest. She was a woman 
of good education and of strong character; but 
at times was eccntric. She had a large mausoleum or 
vault put up in the old cemetery on the ridge at Oak Hill, 
in which were placed the remains of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph 
Bailly de Messein, which was the full name, and Mr. and 
Mrs. Francis Howe. In 1917, the remains of Miss Frances 
Howe, who had died in San Francisco, were brought here 
and interred in this family vault. This can be seen from 
the South Shore Electric Road between Oak Hill and 
Mineral Springs, on the slope of the Calumet Beach or 
Morgan Park Ridge. It has been sold with the farm. 

She had also placed a number of the old log cabins belong- 
ing to Bailly Post together at the old home, and erected a 
large beautiful house over them, at considerable expense, 
to form’ a mansion of the old French type. There still 
remains the old original story-and-a-half log house, the old 
chapel, partly renovated, one of the fur storehouses, and a 
brick dwelling erected about thirty years ago. 

At the back of the estate can be seen the marks of the 
old race-track upon which Mr. Bailly trained his blooded 
horses to run and his daughters in the art of horseman- 
ship. Through the ground and trending to the southeast 
can be seen the old North Sauk Trail, as it descends the 
bluff and soon crosses the Calumet River. Toward the 


{12 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


west it crosses the road and goes to the northwest on its 
way to Dakota, passing through lake country between Oak 
Hill and Lake Michigan. 

The writer, in company with two school principals, 
Misses' Parson and Green, from Chicago, visited here in 
1916. The caretaker showed us through this beautiful 
building and the inside resembled a regular historical society. 
It was filled with all kinds of beautiful, rare or bizarre 
objects. There were many Indian relics, some of them most 
beautiful. Hatchets of the old French explorers, one of 
them exactly like the one dug up by Major Henry Lee, of 
South Chicago, at Palos Park. Different weapons, sold by 
the traders; rare clothes of the “fifties and ’sixties; beauti- 
ful tapestries brought from Europe, and other interesting 
things. Burglars had been ransacking through the house 
for gold and silver ornaments, while Miss Howe was in 
Morida; things were strewn all over the floor. 

The caretaker, Martin Peterson, who had formerly been 
one of the author’s pupils at the Van Vlissingen School, 
Chicago, was well acquainted with the history of the Bailly 
family and told us many things. Among others he said 
that Miss Howe informed him that a treaty of peace with 
the Indians had been signed in that house. If that be the 
case, it may have been the treaty with the Indians for land 
for the great Indiana State Road, called Michigan Road— 
one hundred feet wide—that runs from Michigan City, 
through Indiana, to Madison, on the Ohio River, or one 
not ratified by the United States Senate. 

After Miss Howe’s death, in 1917, the entire collection 
of the Bailly mansion was sold at public auction and was 
bought by various historical societies, in Chicago, Gary and 


JOSEPH BAILLY—FUR-TRADER 113 


Valparaiso; and local historians like A. E. Knotts and J. M. 
Bowers, of Gary, and Professor FE. Bennett, of Valparaiso 
University. 

Mr. Bowers, who bought the rare Bible and catechism 
written by Joseph Bailly and also other books, states that 
he was amazed at the number and variety of the books 
owned by the Bailly daughters, as well as the grand- 
daughter, Miss Howe. Books written by standard English 
and American authors, as well as books in foreign lan- 
guages, showed that they were cultured people. 

This Bailly mansion, with the beautiful knoll upon which 
it is situated, should be purchased by the state of Indiana or 
by Porter County as an historical museum. For many years 
it was the historical center of Northern Indiana. 


CHAPTER X 
MR. JOHN G. MORGAN 


WHILE Joseph Bailly was the first settler and hotel-keeper 
of the Dune, having settled there in 1822, the next settler 
was James Morgan, father of John F. Morgan, who settled 
at Chesterton in 1833, and was for many years one of the 
leading citizens of the Dune region. 

One son, John G. Morgan, died in the spring of 1919 at 
the age of eighty-six years. He was born in LaPorte, 
Indiana, in 1832, and was one year old when they moved 
to Chesterton on the new Chicago Road in 1833. He was 
still in fair physical and good mental condition when inter- 
viewed for over an hour in July, 1918. 

Mr. Morgan said that Little Fort, noted in the French, 
British and American occupation, was located on the south 
side of Fort Creek, near the old mill dam of Hobart’s Mill. 
It was on the high ridge along Fort Creek, west of the 
swampy ground, south of Mount Tom. This is also the 
spot that is given by General Hull, in his map of the Chi- 
cago and Calumet region, drawn about 1812, and is the 
spot that the writer selected several years ago as the site 
put down by General Hull. This was confirmed by Captain 
Charles H. Robinson, an expert in military lines, who is 
the leading archeologist of the Prairie Club. 


114 


MR. JOHN G. MORGAN 115 


Nothing positive is known of the date of erection of 
this little fort, or of its destruction. It is known that the 
French erected it and that the British abandoned it after 
Clark captured Kaskaskia and Vincennes, as they did the 
little fort at Chicago that is mentioned by Major DePeyster, 
the British commander at Mackinac, in his speech to the 
Indians at L’Arbor Crouche, July 4, 1778. 

Mr. Hubert M. Skinner, who has done so much work 
on early Indiana history, has a very interesting article on 
the French tassements in the March, 1916, number of the 
Indiana Magazine of History. He says that the name of 
a town, Tassinong, that is in the southern part of Porter 
County, is really Tassement, as old settlers in that neigh- 
borhood say that an Indian told them that a very old French 
trading establishment had been located there many years 
before, though all traces of it had vanished long ago. Tass1- 
nong was as near as the Indians could get to the old French 
pronunciation, 7assemong. Mr. Skinner is an old resident 
of Porter County. 

Mr. Morgan was very well acquainted with the Bailly 
family, for they were his nearest neighbors for years. 
He had learned the Ottawa and Pottawottomie languages 
so that he could talk with Mrs. Bailly. 

Simon Pokagon, Chief of the Pottawottomies, was a fre- 
quent visitor at the Morgan house, as well as at the Bailly 
Post, and the Morgans knew him well. John met Pokagon 
at the World’s Fair, at Chicago, in 1893, and spoke Pot- 
tawottomie with him. Morgan had first seen young 
Pokagon, son of the chief, and told him who he was. When 
he visited their camp at the World’s Fair a few days later 
with his wife, young Pokagon rushed them in as invited 


116 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


guests, telling Morgan that the chief wanted to see him, as he 
remembered him well. They had a great time, talking 
Indian, and discussing old times. Pokagon had the Indians 
go through all the regular Indian dances, and told them 
that Mr. Morgan was an old-timer, who knew all the Indian 
dances, and was one of their adopted brothers, and they 
must do him honor, which they did with great interest. 
Morgan showed some of the younger Indians how the Pot- 
tawottomies and Ottawas performed some of these dances 
forty or fifty years before. 

Before their dispersal, the Indians had a village along 
Fort Creek, about a couple of blocks south of the Detroit- 
Chicago Road, at Tremont. They also had a camp near 
Mount Tom. They came visiting every year for a while. 
One day an Indian who was already pretty well “lit up” 
came to Mr. Williamson of the City West Tavern and 
wanted some more fire-water, as he said it was very nice 
and hot. 

Mr. Williamson refused to give him any more, where- 
upon the Indian, according to Mr. Green, started toward 
him with a big scalping: knife. Mr. Williamson jumped 
to the fireplace, big enough to roast an ox, grabbed the 
great poker and gave the Indian such a blow on the head 
with it that it crushed his skull. The other Indians attacked 
Mr. Williamson, but the white people protected him, and 
he was advised to skip, which he hastily did. The Lake 
Shore Railroad had just been built, from Michigan City to 
Chicago, in 1852, so Mr. Williamson took the train for 
Chicago, but a collision took place near Baileytown and 
he was killed. 

Mr. Alanson Green, who had lived in that neighborhood 


MR. JOHN G. MORGAN 117 


for a number of years, bought the hotel and increased its 
accommondations and prestige so much that he was com- 
pelled greatly to enlarge the hotel and put up another 
enormous barn. It became the center of a group of twenty 
or more houses within a mile of the hotel, and this little 
village was called New City West. After a while “New” 
was dropped and the place was generally called City West. 

Mr. Morgan said that in the ‘fifties and ’sixties the Green 
Tavern was the center of the social life of all that region. 
Great trains of pioneers stopped there on their way to 
Chicago, or the West, especially during the Pikes Peak gold 
fever. The large hotel and the immense barns were often 
too small for the crowds that thronged them. It was also a 
leading station of the Underground Railroad. 

The old Valparaiso Road went through the hotel grounds, 
using from there the same road as the stage line did until 
they parted company back of Mount Tom. The passengers 
on the stage line tool dinner at the hotel while the drivers 
got ready with the new relay of horses. The Indian visitors 
liked to visit it again, now that Mr. Williamson was gone, 
and Mr. Green was in his stead. 

Mr. H. G. Green, the hunter, stated that one day when 
he was a boy he was roaming the woods a few blocks south- 
east of the hotel, and met an Indian hunting in the woods, 
who looked very dangerous, as he carried a gun, knife and 
tomahawk. But the boy was already known to the Indians 
-as a pretty bright little fellow, and the Indian asked him 
if he had seen any sign of deer. Horace told him he had 
seen a deer going off rapidly to the east a short time ago, 
in the direction of Furnessville. 

The Indian thanked him and darted off in that direction, 


118 THE WONDERS: OF THE DUNES 


and soon came upon its tracks. He followed them closely, 
and catching sight of the deer, stalked it carefully and suc- 
ceeded in killing it. He felt very grateful to the boy, and 
the next time he saw Horace, he patted him on the head, 
and gave him a new name, Little Hunter, which the Indians 
called him as long as they came to that neighborhood. He 
later became known in the West as Hunter Green. 

The circuses all stopped here when in this neighborhood 
and the people came from many miles around to visit them. 
Also important meetings, and neighborhood dances, etc., 
were held here. About two hundred feet west of the hotel 
was a large cooper shop, which gave employment to a 
number, of people. A block west of this was a small brick- 
yard. A mile west of it, east of Portchester Road, a log | 
railroad, drawn by horses or mules, ran from the Chicago 
Road in a northwesterly direction to Morgan’s Sawmill, 
north of Waverly Bridge, just about the center of the great 
parking stand now placed there. From there it ran to the 
shore of Lake Michigan, and then out to the end of a large 
pier, about six hundred feet long, where it brought logs 
that were cut off this swampy woodland between the Dunes 
and Chicago Road. This land was swamps and woods, with 
the exception of Beech Ridge, a ridge about two hundred 
feet wide, extending from Portchester to Michigan City, 
and heavily timbered. 

These logs were sawed into lumber of the required shape 
and size, and shipped to Chicago in some of the vessels 
that tied at the Morgan Dock, as it was called. About the 
end of the ’sixties, the boiler of the Morgan Sawmill blew 
up, and killed the engineer, besides wounding others. One 
local report is that the engineer was found on a sand-hill 


MR. JOHN G. MORGAN 11g 


along the creek, and part of the boiler on a hill on the other 
side of the creek. After this accident, the mill was not 
rebuilt, as the most valuable timber had been cut and there 
was not enough left to make it pay the expense of putting 
up anew mill. Asa result, the old log road was abandoned, 
though it is plainly visible for a great part of its extent. 

The great pier extending far out into the water, near 
Fish Johnson’s, gradually fell into decay as the ships for- 
sook it and there was not enough business to warrant its 
being kept up. It slowly disappeared with no outward 
appearance to show that this great pier had ever existed 
here, though Johnson states that on a calm day one can 
look into the deep water and see some remains of that 
mighty pier. The Morgans, and Doctor Schenck, of the 
University of Chicago, have their beautiful summer homes 
near there on the high lake bluffs, at the mouth of the old 
Valparaiso Trail, and from that historic spot can see in 
their mind’s eye the long wharf, with the ships and barges 
moored to them and the bustling workmen rushing into them 
from the Morgan Sawmill with the lumber for Chicago’s 
great needs. They can vision Little Fort, with the French 
soldiers and traders; the Indians; the English; De Linctot 
and the Americans. Also the first settlers, the prehistoric 
savages. They can see the teams, coaches and prairie 
schooners, drawn by horses, mules, or oxen patiently toiling 
along the beautiful trail back of their cottages and resting 
on the beach below them, before fording the creek and start- 
ing for Chicago. 

Another old pioneer is Mr. James L. Monahan of Michi- 
gan City, Indiana, where he has lived over thirty years. He 
was born at Springfield, Ohio, March 1, 1825. His father 


1ZO THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


was a soldier of the British Army, who came to America 
in 1812, and liked the United States so well that he stayed 
here, and married a woman in Baltimore, Maryland, who 
was a descendant of some of the old Colonial families. 

Mr. Monahan’s father came from Springfield, Ohio, to 
Indiana in 1835, in a large prairie schooner, drawn by four 
horses, with horses and cattle, and settled about four miles 
from Rolling Prairie, and ten miles east of LaPorte. 

Here the family lived and throve. The woods around 
them were filled with game. Bears, panthers, lynx, deer, 
wolves, beavers, etc., were common at that time. There 
were still a large number of Indians, chiefly Pottawottomies, 
who visited there, as they did not wish to go to the reserva- 
tions or to the Indian Territory in 1833. Some remained 
in that neighborhood until 1865. 

Mr. Monahan remembers Daniel Webster very well, as 
he met the latter on his return trip from the West in 1837. 
Webster had been out West inspecting some of his property 
in Illinois. He spoke at City West at the mouth of Fort 
Creek, near Tremont, which place he was booming in Con- 
gress as the place for a government harbor. 

He stopped at Michigan City also and spoke to the people 
on the future of Michigan City, whose inhabitants believed 
that Michigan City would be the greatest city on the lakes. 
They even dreamed of a great railroad to be called the 
Buffalo and Mississippi Railroad, that would connect New 
York with the Mississippi River. Daniel Webster turned 
the first spadeful of earth at Michigan City for this great 
railroad of the future, amid great rejoicing. Great bonfires 
and barbecues were given, and Webster was given a piece 


MR. JOHN G. MORGAN 121 


of land, on what was to be their business street. He said he 
would keep it as it might be useful to him in his old age. 
Mr. Monahan, then a big boy of twelve, did not go to 
Michigan City, about twenty miles away, to hear the speech, 
but his folks did and reported the proceedings. He was 
driving an ox team along the old corduroy road, near the 
Little Kankakee River the next day, when he saw the stage 
coming along, with the four horses running at full speed. 
The road, being made of rough logs and brush laid across 
the big swamp, and covered with a little dirt, was so rough 
that the stage was bumping up and down frightfully. Mr. 
Monahan was compelled to back his oxen into the swamp 
to let the coach go by, and he heard and saw Webster sing- 
ing at the top of his voice, as the coach bobbed up and down: 


“Rock-a-by baby in the tree top; 
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock.” 


He was evidently full of spirits that day. 

Mr. Monahan says that the panic of 1837 knocked out 
the Buffalo and Mississippi Railroad; that the Lake Shore 
Railroad later, about 1851, took over the right-of-way, and 
from Baileytown sent a spur, or side-railroad, back to Michi- 
gan City. This lasted for a number of years, and the road- 
bed can still be seen on the south side of the South Shore 
Electric line tracks, along the old Chicago and Michigan 
Road, especially east of Tremont. This short line was 
called the “plug line” by the natives. The South Electric is 
on part of this “plug line” right-of-way from Michigan City 
to Baileytown. 


122 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Mr. Monahan is a good-looking old gentleman, nearly 
ninety-eight years of age. He is six feet tall now, and in his 
prime must have been a giant. His long white hair and 
beard give him a patriarchal appearance, but his voice is as 
vigorous and his brain as keen as a man of sixty. His eyes 
are too dim to read, but the widowed daughter does that for 
him. In a long interview with the author, Mr. Monahan 
did not show the slightest sign of weariness, and was very 
much interested in describing this early history. He is cer- 
tainly the most wonderful specimen of strength and vigor 
that the author has ever witnessed. When asked for the 
secret of his great vigor, he said: “I inherited a strong 
body from my forefathers, and I have kept it so by clean 
living and exercise. I was for many years a blacksmith.” 
Also he said, “I think a great deal of it comes from the 
fact that my folks, besides being strong people, came from 
a number of vigorous nationalities, and the mixture of 
strong peoples makes an extra strong, vigorous race. My 
folks were Irish, English and French, perhaps others.” Since 
his folks came from Southeastern Pennsylvania and Mary- 
land, there may also be a strain of German from Colonial 
or Revolutionary ancestors. 

Among the things that stirred up the people in those days 
were the political campaigns. The liveliest one was the 
Van Buren and Harrison campaign in 1840. Mr. Monahan, 
then a boy of fifteen, remembers that well, and especially 
one parade in which two log cabins were hauled on two 
trucks; one drawn by twenty-four oxen and the other by 
twenty-four horses. There were twenty-four states in the 
Union then. These were escorted by twenty-four girls on 


MR. JOHN G. MORGAN 123 


horseback and also twenty-four boys on horseback. Every- 
thing was decorated with flags and red, white and blue. 

The stage line from Michigan City to Chicago was started 
in 1834. In 1842 Mr. Monahan took a trip from LaPorte 
to Chicago for some steel for their blacksmith shop. They 
came via Thornton to Riverdale, and down the old Michi- 
gan Road, through Kensington and Roseland. They had 
a very tough time through the marshes and sand-hills; 
camped over night at Riverdale, on Calumet River. It took 
one day to go to Riverdale from Chicago, and two days 
more to get to LaPorte with their load of iron and steel. 
They had two four-horse teams and two one-horse teams. 

Mr. Monahan’s son, Clarence Monahan, who lives a mile 
out of Michigan City, at Orchard Lodge Farm, confirmed 
the story told by his father about an old battle-ground near 
Rolling Prairie, from which guns have been dug that were 
changed from flint locks to percussion cap locks by Mr. 
Monahan, who was an expert blacksmith. I+ may have been 
the site of a battle between the English and the French 
before 1763. 

Before the Civil War many negroes ran away to Canada, 
and many of them were hid in the Dunes and in Chicago, 
where they were cared for by anti-slavery people. The negro 
refugees came north in such large numbers and yet were 
so seldom seen, that the pursuing slave owners and 
the northern sheriffs and other officials were often greatly 
puzzled and mystified in trying to get any track of the 
fugitives. 

Some, of course, were captured, but the larger number 
succeeded in escaping into Canada, via the Dunes, etc., to 


124 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Detroit, and other places. One man finally said that he 
knew how they got to Canada. It was by an underground 
railroad. This term stuck, and a slave was said to have 
gone by the underground railroad if he succeeded in getting 
to Canada, the stations being the various stopping places in 
which he was hid. 

The slaves generally traveled at night by routes that led 
through the country or small villages, in all kinds of dis- 
guises, and in all kinds of transportation; under hay, loads 
of corn, potatoes, etc. One of the leading stations of this 
underground railroad was the old Holland Settlement at 
Roseland, founded in 1849, on Michigan Avenue, west of 
Pullman, and which for many years was one of the leading 
settlements on the Detroit-Chicago Road, from Chicago to 
Michigan City. 

Numerous slaves had been concealed in the big barn of 
Mr. Cornelius Kuyper, or in his cellar, under a trap-door. 
Those at night were brought out and disguised or hid and 
transported to places some miles farther east toward Ham- | 
mond, or Hohman’s Bridge as it was then called, where 
they were sent to different places along the Dunes, which 
was the greatest hiding-place for them on the entire route 
to Canada. 

One story Mr. Kuyper was accustomed to relate with 
great glee. In his official capacity as town constable, he was 
often called upon to assist in capturing these fugitive slaves. 
Though he never succeeded in capturing any, his zeal in 
seeking them was so great that he earned the gratitude of 
the slave owners and sheriffs for his energy in hunting up 
all kinds of places where these fugitives should have been 
concealed. 


MR. JOHN G. MORGAN 125 


On one occasion a slave owner from Kentucky came to 
him with a deputy sheriff and his posse from Chicago, 
seeking three runaway slaves that the owner valued at three 
thousand dollars apiece, as they were exceptional men. Mr. 
Kuyper was pressed into service, and they went all over 
the country, even to the Indiana line, without finding a 
trace of the fugitives. 

On their return to his house, tired, wet and hungry, Mr. 
Kuyper gave them a fine meal, and started them off to 
Chicago, going past the Ten-Mile House at Vincennes Ave- 
nue and Eighty-seventh Street with them to wish them better 
luck the next time. When he bade them adieu, the slave 
owner thanked him exceedingly for his kindness, zeal and 
hospitality. 

After he was sure that they were safely on their way to 
Chicago, he returned to his home and going down into his 
cellar, shoveled some potatoes off a trap-door and called one 
of the runaway slaves to come, to supper. He then went to 
his great barn, and going to the immense mass of hay 
there, loosened some of it, and called to the other two fugi- 
tives there to come out. They came to supper, three fine- 
looking, intelligent men, and Mr. Kuyper told them to get 
a good meal and then hurry, as they must be on their. way. 
After this meal, he packed them into the bottom of a large 
wagon, covered them over with corn on the cob, until they 
could hardly breathe, and put old sacks over this. 

He then drove the wagon to the next underground station 
east of Riverdale, on the Calumet River, at the home of 
John Ton, one of the young business leaders of the com- 
munity. This house was about a couple of blocks east of 
the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad, on the north 


126 THE-WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


side of the Calumet River. Mr. Ton was made acquainted 
with the urgency of the case, and he hitched up a team 
immediately, concealed the slaves as Mr. Kuyper had done, 
took the corn from Mr. Kuyper’s wagon, covered the ne- 
groes as before with corn, and departed to a station near 
Hammond, or Hohman Bridge, where he delivered his load 
with instructions to pass it along to the next station in the 
Dunes. This system was repeated until these men reached 
Canada in safety, as Mr. Kuyper was later informed. Mr. 
Kuyper, after having delivered his load, came home with 
an empty wagon, and a very satisfied state of mind. 

The Indiana anti-slavery people aided greatly in giving 
these runaway slaves shelter and also in piloting them 
through the Dunes, along Indian trails and pioneer roads. 
Mr. Green, proprietor of Green’s Tavern at New City West, 
or Tremont, was a Connecticut Yankee and a strong aboli- 
tionist, and he was of very great service in hiding them, 
and sending them along on their road to freedom. His 
place was known as one of the leading underground railroad 
stations in Indiana. 

Mr. John Morgan, of Chesterton, said that during the 
Civil War, when there were so many prisoners in Camp 
Douglas, Chicago, it was pretty well known that the Knights 
of the Golden Circle, a traitorous pro-slavery organization, 
many of whom were in Canada, and a number of them in 
Indiana, Illinois and other states, had figured on attacking 
Camp Douglas, freeing the Confederate soldiers there, sev- 
eral thousand in number, and either attack Chicago, try to 
join the Confederacy, or retreat to Canada. 

They were supposed to come to the Dunes by boat from 
Canada, march through the Dunes and there be joined by 


MR. JOHN G. MORGAN 127 


some Knights of the Golden Circle, while others would be 
ready to join the forces near Camp Douglas. Mr. Morgan 
says the whole of Northern Indiana was alarmed. Sentinels 
were placed on the high peaks of the Dunes with signal 
fires, and two towers were built, one on Mount Tom and 
another at Miller, for observation purposes. Soldiers at 
Michigan City were on the lookout, as there was a camp 
there near Council Grove, called Camp Anderson. 

Preparations were made to assemble all of the citizens if 
an invasion were threatened; and the men were drilling 
and brushing up their rifle practise, so that if these rebels 
and traitors did appear they would get a red-hot reception. 
An attempt was made by the Confederate prisoners to break 
out of Camp Douglas, assisted by some of the traitors, but 
it was suppressed. 

When the United States government thought that things 
had gone far enough with this band of traitors, they arrested 
the ring-leaders, executed some, and sent many to prison, 
totally breaking up this select body of Knights of the Golden 
Circle, greatly to the disappointment of a large number of 
Indiana and Illinois patriots who were aching and training 
to do that job themselves. 


CHA PT ERYXT 
PERIOD OF EXPANSION 


CHICAGO soon developed into a real city, stimulating 
growth in all of the country near it. Many great factories 
were built in the limits, as well as a large number outside 
of its boundaries. The Dune region shared in its prosperity, 
a number of small villages being established, and factories 
began to spring up in that section bordering Illinois. 

One of the greatest causes in bringing the Chicago Dune 
region to the attention of the people, and thus starting the 
great development of this whole Chicago Dune region, was 
the great Chicago fire of 1871. The summer and fall of 
that year were exceedingly dry; far more so than that of 
1919; no rain had fallen for.months. Rivers, small lakes 
and marshes had dried up. Wells almost everywhere were 
utterly dry. Crops were an entire failure. The great north 
woods in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan were on fire. 

On Saturday, the eighth of October, 1871, a fire broke 
out in Chicago, and burned many blocks of lumber mills 
and houses on the west side. This was put out by Sunday 
morning, but on Sunday evening, the ninth, another fire 
broke out on the west side, in the stable of Mrs. O’Leary, 
and it swept the city. 

The writer was over at that house at eight o’clock Mon- 


128 


PERIOD OF EXPANSION 129 


day morning, and inspected the stable, part of which was 
standing, and showed clearly how the wind had burned it 
from the southwest to the northeast. The neighbors said 
it had been caused by a tenant in Mrs. O’Leary’s cottage, 
who had gone with a lamp to milk the cow, and that the 
cow, fearful of a stranger, had kicked over the lamp, setting 
the barn on fire. The writer hunted for part of the lamp, 
but was told the pieces had been gathered up as souve- 
nirs; that people had been seen collecting the pieces. That 
seems to be pretty accurate news, and was gathered but a 
few hours after the fire started. The fire spread so rapidly 
in a northeastward direction that in a short time it had 
jumped the river at Adams Street, and was flaming through 
the business district, driven by a fierce gale. 

The writer was able to secure a position on the top of 
a large three-story brick house near the home of Mrs. 
O’Leary, and a magnificent view of the great fire was 
presented. ‘To the northeast the business part of the town 
near the present library building was still in flames. The 
great business blocks would take fire and explode from the 
expansion of the enclosed air. The north side was a roar- 
ing mass of flames. A wide current of flame was attacking 
the east side of the city toward Van Buren and Michigan 
Avenue, and owing to the terrific heat was making its way 
to the south, even against the fierce wind. 

It was a wonderful sight. Of them all the most striking 
feature was the saving of the southern part of Chicago by 
William Haskell, for many years a superintendent of con- 
struction for the Board of Education of Chicago. At the 
risk of his life, he climbed the spire of the Methodist 
Church, corner of Wabash Avenue and Harrison Street, 


130 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


and going down into the church through the burned church 
spire, with pails of water, he put out the fire on the inside 
of the church. Long lines of people were formed from 
Wabash Avenue to the lake, just past Michigan Avenue, 
and many pails of water were passed along to the church 
from the lake. The water-works were burned down. 

Haskell was a wonderful athlete, which enabled him to 
climb the stone tower where it seemed a cat could hardly 
climb. When he went into the church on his many trips, 
with buildings ablaze all around him, thousands of people 
dropped on their knees and prayed for him. When he 
came up the last time, black, bloody, with hair gone and 
clothes burning, and with his arms outspread and said, 
“Boys, the fire’s out!” it seemed as though the Day of 
Jubilee had come. Thousands of voices, for there must 
have been twenty thousand people near there, sang the 
Doxology, “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow;” 
many prayed aloud in the streets. 

It was a day of thanksgiving! This church was sur- 
rounded on the south and west by buildings, many of which 
were wooden. General Philip Sheridan was commander of 
the United States soldiers at Chicago, which was under 
martial law and the buildings opposite the big church were 
either blown up, or torn down. In the latter event huge 
chains were thrown around the buildings which were then 
pulled from their foundations by horses, sometimes as many 
as twenty or thirty being used. This stopped the spread of 
the fire on the south side, and the north side was saved 
after most of the wooden buildings were burned. 

The light was so intense that it was seen for a hundred 
miles and more. To add to the horror, the great fires in 


PERIOD OF EXPANSION 131 


the northern woods were destroying many houses, villages 
and towns, with hundreds of lives. The fires were sweep- 
ing down the west coast of Michigan toward the Dunes. 
The great pines along the Michigan shore were ablaze, burn- 
ing houses, driving people to other sections, and wild ani- 
mals of all kinds before them, many even into the Indiana 
Dunes. 

The Dune marshes were so dry that they were set afire 
and in many cases the vegetable mold was entirely burned 
out together with the trees. 

The desolation of the afflicted city was appalling. Hun- 
dreds of lives were lost; many thousands made homeless; 
millions of dollars in property and goods destroyed. But 
this awful calamity stirred the hearts of the world, and help 
was given from everywhere. The sick and destitute were 
cared for. The Chicago people, instead of being crushed, 
determined to rebuild; better and more lasting. The de- 
stroyed sections that formerly had cheap wooden houses, 
replaced these with brick, marble and granite structures. 

The attention of the world was aroused at this spirit of 
grit and Chicago was hailed as the “Phoenix City.” Busi- 
ness interests from everywhere were centered in Chicago, 
and gradually spread toward the Dune region, as affording 
great opportunities for industrial growth. 

The lake, the rivers, the inland lakes, the centers of vari- 
ous routes that had been so advantageous to the Eskimos, 
the Mound-Builders, the Indians, the French and the early 
settlers, were found to be just as advantageous for business 
purposes on a large scale at the present time. 

Pullman was founded in 1880, on the western shore of 
Lake Calumet. Hegewisch, on the shore of Calumet River 


132 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


and Wolfe Lake. Hammond and East Chicago were 
founded across the line in Indiana, and flourished, building 
up the Calumet region. Honorable A. Frank Knotts, ex- 
Mayor of Hammond, is the industrial promoter of the 
Calumet region, as he was instrumental in getting these 
great industrial plants to locate in the Dune region. 

As Indiana had been very generous in its treatment of 
these corporations, the United States Steel Corporation, 
that had established a great steel plant in South Chicago, 
decided toJocate in the Dunes, and in 1908, under the direc- 
tion of .. Knotts, many thousand acres of dunes and 
swamps were bought and the ‘“‘Magic City” of Gary, named 
after its president, Elbert C. Gary, was founded, and in a 
few years this barren waste was transformed into an ener- 
getic, bustling city, with all modern improvements. 

It is at present a large city, stretching from Clarke to the 
end of Miller at the Porter County Line, a distance of 
eleven miles, with a coast-line of twelve miles. It has at 
least sixty thousand people, and its boomers claim seventy- 
five thousand. 

It is Aladdin’s dream realized, in which unlimited means 
and unlimited energy have given this city in a few years the 
prestige and power that would otherwise take a century to 
produce. It is continually expanding, annexing neighbor- 
ing territory bordering upon it, and modestly aspires to 
become the metropolis of Indiana, and may become such. 

In building up the great Dune cities, two systems were 
followed. Asa sample of the first, take Gary. The United 
States Steel Corporation just took about twenty-five million 
dollars, bought up many thousand acres of land and laid out 
this city. 


PERIOD OF EXPANSION 133 


Frank Knotts is the representative of the second, or com- 
mercial system. As mayor of Hammond, at the head of a 
splendid, wide-awake body of citizens, who backed him, he 
was empowered to go ahead and get industrial plants located 
in Hammond. He told the author it was very discourag- 
ing work at first, as Chicago business people thought that 
Hammond was out of the world. He finally solved things 
this way: “Come out and take a look. We will pay ex- 
penses. We will give you a site for nothing.” On viewing 
the site, the visitor would say, “‘No street.” ‘We will put 
itin.” “Nowater.” “We will put it in.” “No gas.” “We 
will put it in.” ‘No side-track.” “We will put it in.” 

The visitor would generally say that this was exceptional 
treatment, and on meeting a bunch of wide-awake business 
men, who backed up strongly the promises made by Mayor 
Knotts would decide to locate here. By such treatment and 
consummate tact, Knotts and his associates succeeded in 
getting a number of large plants established in Hammond. 
This is the ideal way to build up a town. He helped build 
up East Chicago also. 

As a consequence of this industrial expansion of the west- 
ern part of the Calumet region, strong efforts have been 
made to drain the vast valleys of the Calumet by digging a 
great canal to Lake Michigan. The Knickerbocker Ice Com- 
pany, now a part of the Consumers’ Corporation of Chicago, 
owns two thousand two hundred acres of dunes at Dune 
Park, most of which has a long lake frontage. This com- 
pany has sold an enormous amount of sand for industrial 
purposes. Hundreds of acres of dune ridges have been 
carted off. The process of original deposition can be well 
seen at Dune Park between the little depot and the lake, 


134 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


where the land is perfectly level, and the great ridge border- 
ing the lake is being razed to the ground. 

The great canal called the Burns Ditch is to extend from 
Lake Michigan through the cleared part of Dune Park in a 
straight line for one and one-half miles to the Calumet 
River, about a quarter-mile west of the northern curve of 
the Calumet River opposite Dune Park Station on the Lake 
Shore, and Wilson on the South Shore Railroad. From this 
point, it will extend to the east about two miles, going 
across the Calumet and ending at the mouth of Salt Creek. 
On the west, it will extend in a southwesterly direction for 
eight miles, crossing the Calumet River several times and 
terminating at Deep River, near Washington Street, East 
Gary. 

This great ditch or canal is intended not only to drain 
the rich river bottom along the Calumet River and thus 
reclaim several thousand acres of rich farming land, but 
also to furnish sites for industrial purposes; not only along 
the lake shore, at the mouth of the canal, but also along 
the canal and the Calumet River. 

The Calumet Canal was to cost seven hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars, but the Lake Shore Railroad and the 
South Shore Electric fought this proposition bitterly, as 
it necessitated modern, up-to-date bridges with equipment 
and bridge tenders. They fought it in the Indiana State 
Courts, but it was finally referred to the United States 
Supreme Court, which declared that it was a necessary im- 
provement and should be built. It was so declared in 1916. 

Preparations were resumed, when it was found that ma- 
terial and labor had increased so much that it could not be 
built at that time for less than one million dollars. While 


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PERIOD OF EXPANSION 135 


new bids were being prepared, declaration of war against 
Germany was made April 6, 1917, and the government de- 
cided that as this was not a case of immediate necessity, it 
must wait until after the war; and so the proposed great 
Burns Ditch or Calumet Canal is awaiting further de- 
velopments. It is now halted by an injunction. 

In the meantime the purchasing of great sites in Dune- 
land goes steadily on. The Inland Steel Company has pur- 
chased nearly twelve hundred acres of land in Porter 
County, including the eastern part of Long Lake and ex- 
tending back to the Calumet River. It has a lake frontage 
of over two miles, as well as river frontage. It is looking 
for more land and expects to establish a great plant that will 
rival Gary; would like to extend eastward to the Calumet 
Canal. It should be of great benefit to the community, as 
the scenic features there are not particularly attractive. 

The National Tube Company has also bought a very 
large tract between Miller Park and Gary, and expects to 
put up a large plant. It is the old AXtna Powder Tract with 
two miles’ lake frontage. 

Whiting and Indiana Harbor are growing very rapidly 
and so is East Chicago, of which Indiana Harbor is a part. 
Hammond is expanding greatly in all directions. In fact, 
these four towns are bound together so closely that they 
should unite and form one city, that would give Gary a 
close run for supremacy. Indiana City would be an ap- 
propriate name. If they and Gary should ever unite, it 
would easily become the metropolis of Indiana. 

In traveling through the Dune district one is struck with 
the tremendous number of isolated plants, with switches 
leading to them, seemingly lost in the Dunes or marshes. 


136 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


These seem to be very busy and soon another one is found 
located near there. Before long, a small industrial center is 
formed there, and some houses and stores make it a regular 
little settlement. 

The government is figuring on developing one of the 
greatest harbors in the world, by deepening Lakes Wolfe 
and George in Indiana, and Calumet in Illinois, using Lakes 
Wolfe and George and part of Lake Michigan for the great 
ocean route via the St. Lawrence River, and Lake Calumet 
as the great industrial harbor of the Lake-to-Gulf Route. 


CHAPTER ATL 
PLACES OF INTEREST 


THERE are many places in the Dunes that are very inter- 
esting, and are visited by nature lovers. The sight of city 
folk tramping around the Dune region has ceased to be 
the novelty to the natives that it was a generation ago. At 
present the Dunes are traversed by all kinds of nature 
lovers; many in autos or railroad cars—both steam and 
electric—some in wagons or buggies; but the great majority 
of the explorers go on foot. They are the true Dune lovers; 
“Dune bugs,” as they call themselves; “Dune fans,” as they 
are called by the public. 

Chris Von der Ahe, that genial and popular manager of 
the St. Louis Baseball Club for so many years, little dreamed 
way back in the eighties that the mispronounced word he 
used would be shortened to become the most popular and 
descriptive word in all sport parlance—“fan.” He called a 
friend who traveled with their club a “fan’ a tic’ on base- 
ball, and the reporters shortened it to “fan.” 

The question is often asked, “Where are the beautiful 
and interesting spots around Chicago?’ They are every- 
where. The most interesting places, filled with beautiful 
sylvan spots, are the Dunes of Indiana and the Forest 
Preserve district of Cook County, Illinois. The most inter- 


137 


138 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


esting places in the Dunes are Miller, Long Lake, Dune 
Park, Mineral Springs, Portchester, Tremont, Furnessville, 
Tamarack, Michigan City and Liverpool. Any place be- 
tween these stations on the South Shore Electric Road is 
worth visiting, but these have the most striking features. 

There are but three places in the Indiana Dune Country 
at which the lake can be reached by auto, and these have 
always been the centers of influence. One is Miller, an- 
other Waverly Beach, reached from Portchester and Tre- 
mont, and the other is Michigan City. There are one or 
two other places in which a buggy or wagon can plow its 
very winding and difficult way to the lake over the sand- 
hills, but they are visited only in cases of necessity. 

Miller, about four miles east of Gary, is the popular 
watering place of the Dunes.. Its beach, now called the 
Gary Municipal Beach, is a beautiful one, about one or two 
hundred feet from the lake to the Dunes, and extends for 
miles. Miller is part of Gary. 

The Carr family settled there in the early ‘fifties when 
the Calumet River still flowed into Lake Michigan, and 
built a house at the mouth of the river; this gradually filled 
up until it became entirely closed in the late ’eighties. There 
are still the remains of an old scow at the southeast corner 
of the river at Miller, and Mr. Carr told me about 1908, 
that it was a shallow boat with scythe attachment, which 
he used many times in the ’seventies and ’eighties to keep 
the mouth of the river clear of weeds so as to have a clear 
channel that would furnish ice in the winter. 

After Mr. and Mrs. John Carr were married, in the 
‘seventies, an old soldier visited them and showed them a 
soldier’s patent or deed for part of that land. He was 


PeAGios OF INTEREST 139 


treated very hospitably during his visit of a few weeks, and 
seemed to enjoy it very much. He, with the assistance of 
Mr. Carr, located and marked out his claim. At the end of 
his visit he astonished his hosts by making Mrs. Carr a 
present of the patent of his land, telling her that it now be- 
longed to her; that they had treated him very nicely and 
he had had the time of his life. He then left for the East, 
and they never saw him again. 

Mrs. Carr showed this patent to her neighbors and in- 
formed them that the land now belonged to her. After a 
while the soldier wrote to her, saying that he had learned 
that the mere giving her his patent of title did not actually 
make her the owner, but that it must be made out in 
her own name, and that if she would send it back to him 
he would have it made out in her name, record it and would 
send it back to her. She sent him the document, but never 
heard from him again. This she told me in an interview a 
number of years ago. 

As long as the property was merely a wilderness of dunes 
and marshes to the general public, little interest was mani- 
fested in it, for it was worth but a few dollars an acre. 
For farming purposes most of it was absolutely worthless. 
Its esthetic and educational values were seldom appreciated. 

But, as soon as Gary was started, the value of property 
began to increase; then to soar. Interest in Miller Beach 
began to increase, and the property that Mrs. Carr and her 
husband: had lived upon for many years was now worth 
fighting for. Rival claimants appeared, and the Carrs were 
obliged to put up a very stiff fight; but their lawyer, Mr. 
Daniel Kelly of Valparaiso, Indiana, an able and very pains- 
taking attorney, presented such clear evidence of Mrs. Carr’s 


140 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


right to the property, that she was confirmed in her pos- 
session of it. 

There is a greatly diversified piece of country around 
Miller and a corresponding fullness of plant and bird life, 
that can be readily found by the student of nature. It and 
Liverpool are the best places in the Dunes to study water 
birds, ranging from the snipe to the swan. 

Chanute Hill, at the northeast corner of Miller Bridge, 
is a beautiful, striking hill, and overlooks the old Chanute 
Aviation Field toward the lake. One can lie in the sand 
here and dream of changes in aircraft, that have sprung 
from these experiments in this field, from the biplane glider 
of Chanute in 1896 to the monoplanes, biplanes, triplanes, 
gliders and hydroplanes of the present day. 

Chanute can truly be called the “Father of the Flying 
Machine.” He used different types of gliders, that can be 
seen in the Chicago Academy of Sciences Building at Lin- 
coln Park, but finally concentrated on the biplane. This 
biplane, used by Chanute in 1896, is the -basis of all the 
present flying machines. The Wright Biplane is practically 
Chanute’s biplane glider, with the addition of a motor and 
an improved rudder. 

Chanute began to experiment with these gliding machines 
at Miller in 1896, assisted by Herring and Avery. They 
would watch for hours the evolutions of some big bird in 
the air, for Miller in those days was much frequented by 
eagles, hawks, gulls and other large birds, and say, “When- 
ever we can master the principle of that bird soaring with- 
out wing action, we will have come close to solving the 
problem of-the flying machine.” 

Doctor Chanute, in his experiments at Carr’s Beach, Mil- 


PLACES OF INTEREST 141 


ler, Indiana, in 1896, was assisted in the work by some of 
the boys and young men of the neighborhood. The distance 
from the Miller bridge over the Calumet River to the lake 
is about two blocks. On the north side of the river, east of 
the bridge is a high sandy ridge that borders the river for 
some distance. A few hundred feet north of that is an- 
other ridge running east and west that is several hundred 
feet from the lake, bordering a very fine, wide, level beach. 
The first hill adjoining the bridge, upon the western border 
of which the sidewalk crosses, is the hill from which Doctor 
Chanute generally took his flights and was therefore called 
by the natives of that period, Chanute Hill. 

Two of the young men that helped him were A. Carlson 
and William Westergren, now a real-estate broker, both of 
Miller. These men helped Doctor Chanute very much in 
arranging the machine, of which he had four or five differ- 
ent types, and helped him carry them up the hill. 

They both say that the doctor made many ascents with 
the different types, that he would take the machine, run 
with it on the*hill toward the lake and then jump off toward 
the north and the northeast, trying to clear the valley and 
the ridge and go to the lake. The main effort, at first, 
seemed to be to go from the high ridge safely over the valley 
several hundred feet away. To make this flight or glide, 
the doctor would hold the plane over his head like a coaster, 
and in the case of the biplane would sometimes throw him- 
self on it “belly whoppers,’ and coast to the adjoining 
ridge; but generally he would go with it held over his head, 
holding it by a pair of handles from which he was suspended. 
Mr. Westergren says that a number of the models were 
tried and discarded as being of no practical value; but when 


142 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


they finally adopted the biplane, strongly trussed and with 
a movable tail, with two handles attached under the center 
posts with which to control the movements of the tail and 
machine, much better results were obtained. 

At times when there was a strong wind from the south, 
with an upward current, the biplane would be lifted up so 
high that it would go clear over the ridge and descend to 
the beach; sometimes it would even go out some distance 
into the lake, and fall down in it; in which case a boat was 
required to rescue Doctor Chanute. In a number of cases, 
the machine would not work properly and he would fall into 
the valley just north of the hill. At other times, it would 
hit the ridge and spill the doctor. Again, he would tumble 
out on the beach, being shaken up pretty severely. 

Each time he became more and more convinced that he 
was learning the secret of conquering the air. At each trial 
his confidence grew. This confidence was shared by his 
associates, Mr. Herring and Mr. Avery, but nearly every- 
body else who saw them, or who heard of them, was con- 
vinced that Doctor Chanute was a crank; that the whole 
scheme was chimerical and would never be of any prac- 
tical value. 

At times, with a favorable and upward current, the bi- 
plane would soar way out into the lake at some height. 
The last time the doctor tried his experiment, Carlson was 
helping him by carrying up the planes, and he said that a 
very strong wind from the south or southwest took the 
plane to a great height and was about to carry it far out 
into the lake when the doctor let go his hold and tried to 
drop into the water. Unfortunately, he struck the sand in 


Pee oD UN Bs D 143 


a sitting position right near the water’s edge and was very 
badly injured; so much so that Carlson, who was then a 
youth, helped to bring him to a house in Miller, where he 
was taken care of for nearly three weeks until he was in 
condition to be taken to a Chicago hospital. 

There is no record that the doctor ever attempted to fly 
again after this experience, but he kept up his interest in it, 
and hired a young man to follow his experiments up in the 
mountains of Tennessee; his interesting note-book is in the 
Crerar Library, Chicago. The results of these were fol- 
lowed by a number of people. 

Mr. George Wright, who was then an automobile manu- 
facturer at Dayton, Ohio, wrote to Doctor Chanute about 
them, also visiting him, and Doctor Chanute gave him full 
information in regard to his experiments. Wright tried the 
Chanute glider; he then realized the great value of a motor 
in driving this biplane, applied his genius to it, and evolved 
a machine which has now become the Wright Biplane. He 
gives great credit to Chanute. A monument to Doctor 
Chanute should be erected at Chanute Hill, Miller, Indiana, 
by the city of Gary. The world has now taken up the prac- 
tical use of the aeroplane, and Doctor Chanute’s biplane 
glider, born at the Dunes, has become the car of the air. 

Chanute never dreamed that the tiny acorns he planted 
here in his aviation field at the Dunes, would ever bear such 
giant oaks, for this new science of Aeronautics that Chanute 
founded, is revolutionizing the world. 

About three miles east of Miller, on the South Shore 
Electric, is Long Lake, where there is a little fishing station. 
Long Lake is small, shallow, marshy, has some bass, pickerel 


144 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


and small fish, as well as a few ducks at the proper season. 
A high footpath runs through the swamp at the west end 
of the lake. 

The old stage roads can still be traced there to the east 
also. They were built on Indian trails, and the present road 
follows the Dunes from Polk’s Slide to Miller, Tolleston, 
etc. Long Lake, which formerly in wet seasons received the 
waters of the Little Calumet at Dune Park, and extended to 
Miller at the west, emptied them into the Grand Calumet at 
that point. 

The plant life in the lake and swamps is fascinating and 
worth studying. The great sugar maple bush used by the 
Indians and the early pioneers of this region was situated 
between Long Lake and Lake Michigan, toward Miller. 

About three miles east of Long Lake is Dune Park. It 
is about forty-one miles east of Chicago. This is one of 
the most interesting spots of the Dune region. 

The great Calumet Canal or Burns Ditch is to be dug as 
soon as the present injunction can be dissolved. The bridge 
over the Little Calumet River, southeast of Dune Park, is 
just east of the site of the old Long Bridge, and the site 
there is that of the old Culver Hotel, the point jutting out 
on the river being called Culver’s Point. The buildings 
have entirely gone; but some apples and pears remain, the 
two pear trees being about forty or fifty feet high. This 
place can be easily reached by getting off at Meadow Brook 
or Shady Slide, and walking west on the old Detroit-Chi- 
cago Road for two miles to the Calumet River. 

The eastern part of Dune Park along the lake is still wild 
and beautiful, its different ridges and valleys showing very 
plainly on a cross section, where the sand-dunes to the west 


PUACES OF INTEREST 145 


have been removed. The station of the South Shore Elec- 
tric at Dune Park is now called Wilson. 

A few miles east is Mineral Springs, so called from the 
fine mineral springs found farther south, near Porter. Just 
northwest of the station, at the foot of the dunes, between 
this road and Oak Hill, is the Cowles Tamarack Swamp— 
named after the eminent botanist and leading authority on 
the plants of the Dunes, Doctor Henry W. Cowles, of the 
University of Chicago, who has done so much to make it 
famous. The other Tamarack Swamp, called the White 
Tamarack Swamp, at Tamarack near Michigan City, is far 
inferior, both in beauty and in variety of flora. The Cowles 
Tamarack Swamp should be either taken as a State Park by 
the State of Indiana or purchased by private subscription, 
before it is civilized off the earth through draining the 
marsh and cutting down the beautiful trees, as is being done 
now. Back of the Oak Hill region is a chain of lakes be- 
tween the high dunes, making a very attractive section. The 
old stage road from Detroit to Chicago went piney here 
in the ’thirties and ’ forties. 

The dunes along Mineral Springs and Oak Hill are very 
wild. ‘The highest peaks along the lake there are Mount 
Tim on the east, and Mount Leman on the west, near Oak 
Hill. This is named after Mr. W. H. Leman, who owns 
about six hundred acres of this beautiful Duneland, and 
has two and a half miles of beach for bathing. He has 
quite a colony of Chicago people there, who have built 
some pretty cottages. He is the first summer resorter in 
the Dunes, having built the first summer cottage in 1893. 
When built it was placed on posts several feet above the 
sand, so as to keep dry. It is now a few feet below the 


146 THE WONDERS OF THE DURE: 


sand, which has been gradually piling up against it, and 
must be continually shoveled away. He has leased this 
tract for ninety-nine years to Superintendent Wirt of Gary, 
who will make a wonderful residence suburb of it. 

Another place to visit from Mineral Springs is the Bailly 
Mausoleum, between Mineral Springs and Oak Hill on the 
crest of the Calumet Ridge; also the Bailly home two blocks 
east and two blocks south. Here can be seen the historical 
places before described. 

The next place to visit is Portchester, or Waverly Beach. 
The gravel road turns east on Green Road for two blocks, 
to Waverly Beach Road, which now runs north to the lake. 
The beach at the mouth of Fort Creek is called Waverly 
Beach and is very attractive, visitors coming during the 
summer by the hundreds. There is a large cement parking 
stand near the lake now. The Morgan estate of three hun- 
dred twenty-two acres, including Waverly Beach and 
Mount Tom, is now sold for residences. 

This section from around the mouth of Fort Creek to 
Tremont, a mile or two to the southeast, was for many 
years the most important part of the Dunes, as here were 
Indian villages, Little Fort, City West, and Morgan’s Mill. 
“Fish” Johnson has a bathing pavilion and a restaurant 
there in summer, and has many guests. His fish dinners 
are famous for their excellence. 

There can be seen the great blowout or slide that is called 
the Jens Jensen Blowout, in honor of that landscape genius, 
Jens Jensen. This is where the wonderful Dune Pageant 
was held in all its glory in 1917. This Jensen Blowout, with 
its great bowl, hollowed out by the wind, and the sand 
blown back by the wind until it forms a high plateau about 


Pies OD IN TEREST 147 


fifty or sixty feet high in some places, extends east and west 
for almost a half-mile. The glistening sand, rolling down- 
hill, covering trees and filling valleys, makes an impressive 
sight, and enables one to understand why the old Yankee 
pioneers called the dunes and blowouts “slides.” 

The Jensen Blowout and the Furnessville Blowout, are 
the finest specimens in the Dunes, each one possessing fea- 
tures not found in the other. Both should be visited and 
studied. 

The next stopping place east of Portchester and Waverly 
Beach is Tremont, the land of the three sand mountains— 
Mount Green, Mount Holden and Mount Tom; they were 
called the “Three Sisters,” by the old pioneers. Here was 
located New City West, that began after the death of Old 
City West at the mouth of Fort Creek at the present Wav- 
erly Beach, in 1840; it flourished from 1845 to 1875 with the 
old Green Tavern—two blocks east of the Tremont Station 
of the South Shore Electric—as the center of community 
life. 

New City West is also a vanished city, the only thing 
remaining suggestive of it being an old log house, now in 
ruins, and the little City West schoolhouse, now abandoned, 
a block east of the station. 

M. F. Green, who lives opposite the little depot called 
Tremont Station, is the custodian of the Prairie Club Beach 
House on the lake, about one and one-half miles north. A 
half-mile north, where the road is sandy and turns into the 
Dunes, are two large buildings put up by Wilson & Com- 
pany, the great packers of Chicago, for the use and pleasure 
of their female employees. It is called Camp Wilson. This 
camp is located on the old Link farm, which was formerly 


148 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


a thriving little fruit farm, but is now growing up to under- 
brush. It is the property of J. M. Bowers, of Gary. This 
social experiment was not a success here. 

The Prairie Club Beach House was located there facing 
the lake, because it was considered by the committee on sites 
who selected it as the most beautiful part of Duneland. 
It is situated on the innermost of the several beautiful ridges 
that encircle the southern part of Lake Michigan, and is 
about sixty feet above the clear waters of the lake, giving 
a splendid outlook upon it for miles. A few blocks on the 
west are Mounts Green, Holden and Tom, the latter being 
farthest west, and having an observatory on it put up by the 
boy scouts of Kouts, Indiana, after the old government one 
had fallen. This one was blown down very recently. 

The old Valparaiso Road runs through Tremont back of 
the Dunes, as does the old: Detroit-Chicago Stage Road. 
Little Fort is on Fort Creek back of Mount Tom, and the 
old Hobart Sawmill was situated in the hollow at the foot 
of old Little Fort. The creek that empties into this Fort 
Creek near the old Link House, the camp of our dune her- 
mit, John Daniels, between the two big buildings of the 
Wilson Camp, is Furnessville Creek, that comes from the 
Furnessville Marsh along the foot of the Dunes. 

To the east are several slides as the old settlers called 
them. The first one to the east, Dudley Blowout, is Knowles 
Slide, after Knowles Green, uncle of M. F. Green. 

East of Dudley Blowout is Waterman Slide or Drury — 
Blowout. Here one can see a beautiful hill-slide of sand 
gradually engulfing the trees of the marshy ground at the 
foot of the dune. Bunch grass is trying to check the ad- 
vance of the sand. Near the mouth of the blowout Mr. 


Piece OF INTEREST 149 


Drury had his cottage. Following the trail a few blocks 
east we come to the Big Slide, the Big Furnessville Blow- 
out. This great blowout, over a half-mile in length, east 
and west, appears as a gigantic sand toboggan “‘slide”’ from 
beneath, as well as from above. On the top is a plateau of 
sand. On its southward journey it has in many spots over- 
whelmed the forest and is now gradually covering the shrubs 
and undergrowth of the swamp. In the greater part of its 
course, it has covered about half of the forest, slowly killing 
the trees. 

Here one can see many specimens of climbing poison ivy, 
some main stems being two inches or more thick. This 
part of the swampy woods, below the great Furnessville 
Blowout fifty to sixty feet high, is called the Hothouse or 
Conservatory, as the ground is protected from the blasts 
of the north wind, and the sun, beating upon the glistening 
sand, generates so much heat that the plants are earlier, 
larger and brighter there than elsewhere. This dune has 
traveled so far that the old stage road is completely covered 
in places, and one is compelled to tramp through the swampy 
woods and undergrowth, or climb the great slide. The 
view is superb. 

A few blocks east of this blowout is another large one, 
called Polk Slide, named in honor, it is said, of President 
James K. Polk. It is through this Polk Slide, that the De- 
troit and Chicago stages in early times swung up from the 
beach to back of the Dunes on their way to Chicago, and in 
returning drove down to the beach, thence to Michigan 
City, and from there east and a little north to Detroit. 

Back of M. F. Green’s house, on Frank Koskowski’s 
property, below his house, is the old Mound Valley, crossed 


150 THE WONDERS OF THE DURES 


by the Valparaiso Road. It contained nearly a hundred 
mounds of various sizes, built by the Mound Builders and 
Indians. The part east of the Valparaiso Road belongs to 
J. Carlson, and the house was built about 1850 by J. 
Wheeler. Part of this Mound Valley extends into the 
southeast corner of the author’s bit of Duneland property. 


CHAPTER: XIII 
THE WORK OF TIME 


Tue Indian village was opposite the old Green Tavern 
and was on the banks of Fort Creek which was formerly 
much wider than at present. Indian trails and old wagon 
roads in this vicinity are many. The old log cabin, for- 
merly the home of Brown, of Tamarack, and now in ruins, 
about three blocks east of Tremont, is a relic of New City 
West, which was formerly a busy little hamlet. 

A block or two east of the depot is Fort Creek, called 
Silver Creek by the pioneers, as its bottom was covered with 
silvery sand. It has worn a very tortuous valley through 
these high sand-ridges, or Calumet Beach, for a half-mile. 
Its banks are generally from ten to twenty or thirty feet 
high, with several fine springs gushing from the ridges at 
the south end of the valley. This valley is filled with beau- 
tiful trees and shrubs of all kinds, with many flowers, and in 
spring and early summer is a paradise, for hundreds’ of 
birds are found there, including the cardinal, the scarlet 
tanager, the oriole and the indigo bird. 

The large spring at the south end is the famous Cold 
Spring of the earliest inhabitants, the ancestors of the 
Eskimos, Mound Builders, Indians, French trappers and 
American pioneers. The high west banks of the valley are 


I51 


152 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


in places covered with moss with a little rusty water at the 
base, showing that springs are there still, probably cov- 
ered up. The slide on the east side of Fort Creek is Indian 
Slide. 

The whole region here seems to have been especially 
fitted to be the home of those primitive peoples, with its 
fine springs, running water and high sandy ground. On the 
east side of the valley is the site of an Indian village, with 
innumerable chips of flint, jasper, etc., together with many 
stones the size of one’s fist, that were used to cook the 
food, Indian fashion, by heating the stones and then drop- 
ping them in vessels of water containing the food. 

Many of these stones show the cracks running from the 
outside toward the center, owing to the sudden contractions 
of the heated stones as they came in contact with the water. 
Often they split in pieces. 

The Indian village, which extended to Cold Spring and 
vicinity, was apparently built on the site of a village of 
Mound Builders, as Mound Valley is just west of it and 
seems to have included several kinds of mounds, not only. 
the round burial mounds, but also elliptical ones, just as in 
other locations of the Mound Builders. 

The natural features of the Tremont region are also very 
striking. Its great dunes, encircling ridges, maze of hills 
and hollows, sheltered glens filled with tropical vegetation ; 
valleys and swamps with their varied flora; multitudes of 
birds, including quail, partridge and a wonderful variety of 
singing birds; an exceedingly abundant and diversified flora. 
The Tremont region is certainly one to conjure with, in 
discussing the Dunes! It has been for ages the center of 
the Dunes—geographically, biographically and historically! 


THE WORK OF TIME 153 


It is the Chesterton region so extolled by Doctor Cowles 
in his book on Plant Societies of the Dunes, as Chesterton 
was the railway station at that time. | 

Over a mile east of Tremont is Furnessville, so named 
in honor of the Furness family who settled near here in the 
‘forties. The old road that ran from the Furnessville Sta- 
tion on the South Shore Electric to the Dunes, over both 
the Furness and the Wells estates, is now abolished as a 
road, and is a mere trail through high weeds, brambles and 
swampy places. There was a foot-bridge over Furnessville 
Creek, but it was recently burned in the big fire. 

The Furness farm, between the South Shore Electric 
Road and the Wells estate, is a striking case of a change of 
vegetation. We see so many cases in the Dunes of sand 
gradually burying forests and filling marshes, and develop- 
ing desert-like plants ; of swamps being drained and growing 
common plants and grains, that it seems startling to see a 
fine large farm formerly growing grain, potatoes, large and 
small fruits, etc., reverting to the original conditions of 
many years ago. Yet that is the case with the Furness 
farm of several hundred acres north of the electric road. 
The cleared ground, about two hundred acres, was formerly 
in a high state of cultivation; in addition, a large stock 
farm was maintained in the eastern part of the farm. 

The entire cleared farm, from the electric road to the big 
marsh, was laid with four-inch tile, two hundred feet apart, 
to give it good drainage. It was difficult to lay the drains 
properly, owing to the large amount of soft bog-iron ore, 
or limonite, found in this swampy ground, some of the 
pieces weighing several hundred pounds each. A large 
piece of this type of iron ore that was dug up on Green’s 


154 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


farm, farther west, in the same swampland, is very soft and 
crumbly. 

About fifteen years ago the Furness farm was abandoned 
as a farm, as the drainage was getting poorer, and the land 
more marshy, and getting covered with young alders and 
white poplars. It is really a saddening sight. 

The old house on the hill near the Furnessville Trail, was 
occupied by Mr. Wells’ caretaker, Mr. Nicholson. After- 
ward Mr. Wells built another house at Tamarack and Mr. 
Nicholson was transferred there. He was succeeded by Mr. 
Brown. This old house was known as “The Haunted 
House,”’ by the hikers; no one has as yet seen any spooks, 
though many weird tales are told of it. It is reputed to be 
the home also of woodchucks, foxes, badgers, ‘possums, 
coons and skunks, as their tracks were found all around it. 
The old barn had as tenants some of the largest and liveli- 
est woodchucks imaginable. In early December of 1918 we 
watched a flock of nearly two dozen quail feeding near the 
old barn. The Haunted House and old barn are now torn 
down. 

Here one follows the old Dune stage road east for about 
a block, where it turns to the Dunes for over a half-mile 
to save going through a troublesome brush-covered trail at 
the foot of the dunes. This trail, however, is the Pine Tree 
Trail that leads to the Big Pines. 

Soon the stage road joins it where the going is better, 
and for over a mile this trail leads through woods, the edges 
of swamps and tall oaks until it strikes the Big Pines, scores 
of them, some nearly a hundred feet high, with trunks over 
two feet in diameter, rearing their crowns heavenward. 
The old stage road follows the ancient Indian trail through 


THE WORK OF TIME 155 


here to Polk Slide, and turns to the beach. The Indian 
trail goes on to Michigan City and beyond. For blocks the 
ground here is covered with pine needles, and the air is 
perfumed with their odor. 

One can picture the Indians as they went through these 
trails to their homes, or arrayed in their war paint, stealing 
quietly through the country to attack and scalp their ene- 
mies. Even the Iroquois in their attack on the Miamis, the 
Hurons, the Foxes, or the Illinois, came along the beach of 
Lake Michigan and often took the inside trail through here. 

From Polk Slide the road east is a recent wagon road, 
made for the Wells estate, and much neglected. It runs 
east toward Michigan City through the woods for about 
three miles, or even five, following its various crooks and 
turns, until it reaches the house in which lived Mr. Brown, 
the superintendent of the Wells estate. The place is called 
Tamarack, owing to the White Tamarack swamp there. 
This road to Tamarack is a beautiful one, going through 
marshes and jungles, over hills and along ridges, winding 
in and out in a most bewildering manner through the re- 
gion. Ex-Mayor Krueger, of Michigan City, says that the 
post road did not go through the Dunes from Michigan 
City to Polk Slide, but took the beach to Polk Slide. 

Mr. Stamford White, President of the Chicago Board of 
Trade, and a very public-spirited citizen, who recently died, 
had a summer home on the lake shore of Tamarack. He 
was the trustee of the Wells estate, and owned part of it. 
About fifteen or twenty years ago an effort was made to 
make a regular English country estate of the Wells prop- 
erty. A wire fence was built between the higher ground 
and the marsh. Live stock of fine quality was introduced: 


156 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


horses, cattle, sheep and pigs. But they did not thrive. 
The ground was not suitable for it; much of the stock died. 
The wolves got away with many of the sheep; poisonous 
reptiles and plants may have finished others. The ground 
was not rich enough to provide much food, and the farm 
project was abandoned. The ground is now kept as a 
great estate, with a caretaker who looks after it. Mr. 
White’s death may cause a change in matters. As this 
is a private estate, visitors are not allowed to roam through 
the grounds without permission. 

Several miles beyond Tamarack is found Michigan City, 
which is fifty-seven miles from the Chicago Loop. This is 
situated on the shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the 
Riviere du Chemin, or Trail Creek. West of the mouth of 
the river formerly stood a great dune called by the pioneers, 
“Hoosier Slide.” The description by Harriet Martineau, 
in the ’thirties, of a sunset on Lake Michigan as seen from 
the top of Hoosier Slide, is most charming. Nothing pub- 
lished recently in praise of the Dunes can surpass the won- 
derful imagery and vivid word painting of this gifted 
English writer. 

Hoosier Slide was formerly almost two hundred feet 
high and quite wide, and with its twin dune, Yankee Slide, 
on the east side, guarded the mouth of the Riviere du 
Chemin, like the Twin Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of 
Gibraltar. This little river, piercing the Hoosier Ridge, 
left the two great peaks as its sentinels. Hoosier Slide, 
which stood there for many centuries, has been sacrificed 
to commercialism. The sand was sold and removed, gen- 
erally for filling-in purposes; and now a small desert plain 
remains. 


THE WORK OF TIME 187 


Some years ago the officials of Michigan City, led by 
their mayor, Martin T. Krueger, and backed by the wide- 
awake people of Michigan City, decided to save their beau- 
tiful east dune, Yankee Slide, from demolition and passed 
a law adding it to their park system, making it now a part 
of Washington Park; it is to be protected as much as pos- 
sible in its natural state. This high dune is situated on 
the banks of Trail Creek at the northeastern corner of 
Washington Park, next to Bismarck Bluff. : 

The Michigan City Beach, at Washington Park, is a very 
fine broad beach and in summer is occupied by thousands 
of visitors who find it of great pleasure and value. A 
couple of miles or so up the beach and connected with it by 
an excellent automobile road, are other beaches called 
Sheridan Beach, Long Beach and Duneland Beach. Here 
are many beautiful summer cottages which are used by 
people from different parts of Indiana, Illinois and Michi- 
gan. The houses are sheltered from the sun by the spread- 
ing pines found on the Dunes and in the sheltered glens 
and valleys. 

Here at Michigan City is not only a magnificent view of 
the lake with its harbor and its government lighthouse, its 
many ships, yachts and smaller boats; but also in the Dunes 
to the north and east are a variety of flowers and birds in 
the woods and fields. Michigan City is being boomed as 
the Gateway to the Dunes by its Chamber of Commerce, W. 
K. Greenebaum, Secretary-Manager. 

In the eastern part of Michigan City and beyond it is a 
large tract of land, in which centers some of the most 
remarkable events in the history of the whole Dune region. 
This tract is called the Springland Farm and is owned by 


158 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Martin T. Krueger. In this beautiful tract are situated 
the Marquette Spring of 1675, the old Indian council and 
dancing grounds, the site of the Revolutionary battle with 
the British and other historic places. 

Right across a gully, Cheney Valley, from Marquette 
Spring, was situated the cabin of Mr. Coughlan, the trapper, 
at the time of Black Hawk and it is supposed that the cabin 
of Jean Baptiste Pointe au Saible was located on the same 
site in 1779, when he was captured by the British and taken 
to Mackinaw. 

In the eastern part of this big tract occurred the famous 
skirmish of the Americans and British on December 5, 
1780, when the Americans were defeated. This is the battle 
that some authors locate at South Chicago, but which Lieu- 
tenant-Governor Sinclair says was fought at Trail Creek. 

The old Post Road from Detroit to Chicago passed 
through this place, crossing Trail Creek near the Club 
House and winding its way along the pines that cover a 
great part of the tract. It can easily be traced for a long 
distance. 

This spot has hills and ravines and many beautiful trees 
of various kinds, especially a very large number of magnifi- 
cent white pines, the finest in Northern Indiana. 

Mr. Krueger has a home among the hills at the west end, 
near the former site of the famous Scott Mills. Here is 
where he enjoys himself looking after his woodlands, espe- 
cially after a hard day’s work in his law office down-town. 

Mr. Krueger has presented eighty acres of the central part 
of his beautiful Springland Park to the people of Michigan 
City as a Memorial Park in honor of the boys who went 
to the front in the great World War. In this park will be 


THE WORK OF TIME 159 


reserved a spot for the interment of any soldier, sailor or 
marine of the World’s War from Michigan City who 
passed away. Mr. Krueger will be known in history as the 
“Patriotic Mayor of Michigan City.”’ 

About a half-mile east of Marquette Spring, on the 
grounds of the Pottawottomie Country Club, Mr. Krueger 
showed us the original crossing over Trail Creek, through 
which ran the old road and over which later a bridge was 
built for the accommodation of the stages and the great 
prairie schooners that migrated by the thousands toward 
the West. Mrs. Kinzie, in Waubun, says that a petition for 
a “Brigg” at Michigan City in 1831 was filed by the garri- 
son of Fort Dearborn and sent to the government. This 
is the old one near the club house. 

Two bridges were built here at Michigan City: one at this 
crossing, only twenty rods west of the club house, in 1831, 
and the other at a later period over Trail Creek, near 
Scott’s Mills, below Mr. Krueger’s house. The present 
bridge at Franklin Street was located there still later. This 
was to accommodate traffic that came down from the north, 
along the shore, as well as to connect the central part of 
town with the lake. 

The banks of Trail Creek, as a rule, were so high and 
steep that the traders were compelled to go for miles to find 
a suitable fording place; and it was here, around the ford, 
at Trail Creek, that the battle was fought December 5, 1780, 
between the pursuing Indians, under Mr. Champion, the 
head fur-trader at Fort St. Joseph, and the Americans, when 
they caught up with and defeated the Americans and French 
from Cahokia, who had captured and looted Fort St. Joseph, 
Michigan, of many bales of choice furs. As the battle was 


160 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


also fought on the hills on the west side of Cheney Valley, 
the place which is now the Memorial Park should have a 
monument to the American soldiers killed there in the 
Revolution, as well as those in the Civil, Spanish and 
World Wars. Camp Anderson was near Trail Creek in 
T864. 

Springland is about a mile east of Sheridan Beach, in the 
northeastern part of Michigan City. It is very easy to 
reach by auto, and fronts on Springland Avenue. The 
easiest way to reach it by railroad is to take the South Bend 
Express on the South Shore Electric to their big office 
building a couple of miles east of Michigan City, getting 
off at Carroll Avenue. Springland Park is only a block 
north of this. 

From Michigan City on Franklin Street, take the East- 
port Electric Car. The Michigan Central depot is near 
Franklin Street, so that passengers can get on there. The 
terminus of the Eastport line is on the same street as the 
South Bend Electric, Carroll Avenue, and a walk north 
a half-mile on a fine graveled road brings one to Spring- 
land Park. 

Another remarkable spot, one of the great centers of 
southern dune life, though not generally considered as part 
of the Lake Michigan Dunes, is that section of high dunes 
and ridges that is bordered by the Little Calumet River and 
which is part of the original Glenwood and Calumet beaches 
thrown up by ancient Lake Chicago. 

In the center of this system of high dunes and ridges, is 
Liverpool, part of East Gary, near the mouth of Deep River, 
which flows through these very high dunes. Liverpool is 
surrounded by great dunes and ridges interspersed with 


THE WORK OF TIME 161 


beautiful glens, in many cases covered with deep forests. 
These are filled with very rare flowers, among which are 
different kinds of orchids, including the beautiful purple 
lady’s slipper as well as the smaller ones, the Arethusa, 
pitcher plant, trailing arbutus, Pogonia and Calopogon or 
grass pink, with numerous others. One of the most suc- 
cessful students of plant life in the Dune region is Mr. 
George Pinneo, of Gary. He has done a great deal of work 
in the Liverpool and East Gary district. 

Sundew are sometimes found on the hillsides, some of 
them having a few small insects in their pretty leaves. It 
is very interesting to watch the leaves trap, kill and digest 
the insects. 

Patterson Camp, Liverpool, is reached by the Hobart 
car from Gary, which passes within a few blocks of it. 
Autos go right past it, since it is on the Ridge Road through 
East Gary. The Michigan Central stops at Liverpool. 

In 1915 a trip was made to South Bend to see Mr. George 
A. Baker, the secretary of the Northern Indiana Historical 
Society, whose booklet on the St. Joe-Kankakee Portage 
is very full and scholarly. He and Doctor Montgomery, 
the president, kindly drove the writer to the old portage, 
north of South Bend, exactly where the targets of the State 
Militia Rifle Range are placed. 

We explored that part, took the trail by foot through the 
cemetery, and then climbed into the doctor’s auto and drove 
as closely as possible along the trail to the Kankakee River 
point. On returning to South Bend, the writer asked the 
hosts if they had marked this route in any way, and they 
confessed that they had not, stating that requests had been 
made to the Indiana Legislature and also to Mr. Studebaker, 


162 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


the great philanthropist of South Bend, to put up fine 
cement pillars, with bronze markings, but without results 
as yet. 

The writer remarked that they had put in fifty years 
studying that region, knew it better than anybody in the 
world, and should put up some markers along the route, 
even if they were only four-inch posts with a board across; 
that they were mortal and might be called away at any 
time; therefore they should rush it through. They were 
exceedingly kind and helpful, and made this South Bend 
trip most interesting. 

About two weeks later, Mr. Baker sent a conden letter in 
which he said they had followed the advice of the writer 
and had gone over the entire La Salle Portage between the 
St. Joe and the Kankakee and had placed eight-inch posts 
with markers. A postscript to the letter said this: “To 
think that a Chicago man had to come out here and tell 
us what to do.” Mr. Baker passed away a short time ago, 
leaving Doctor Montgomery and ex-Treasurer Knoblock 
as the greatest living authorities on the St. Joe-Kankakee 
Portage. Mr. Baker was a very enthusiastic historian and 
archeologist. 


CHAPTER XIV 
DUNES NATIONAL PARK 


OF ALL the agencies that have contributed toward making 
the Dunes known to the public, the greatest is the Prairie 
Club of Chicago. It has made the Dunes famous. It is 
known throughout the world, and is ranked as one of the 
leading outdoor clubs in existence. Its motto is “Health 
and Service.” 

In 1914, the Prairie Club, under its president, Jens Jen- 
sen, the “Apostle of the Dunes,” leased a large tract of 
land fronting on Lake Michigan at Tremont, Indiana, in 
the wildest, most picturesque part of the Dunes and put up 
a Beach House. This added greatly to the popularity of 
the club, and it has grown rapidly. It now owns this land. 

The Prairie Club has been in the habit of celebrating Me- 
morial Day by giving Memorial Services at the Beach 
House, and then carrying out a program in the woods or 
on the dunes. Among these beautiful plays is the Spirits 
of the Dunes, a most artistic one, given in 1915 at Dudley’s 
Blowout, the first one east of the Beach House. 

In 1917 a new idea was followed. For a number of 
years the author had been studying the history of the Dunes 
very closely, and among other things had found the loca- 
tion of both the Revolutionary battle of 1780 at Trail 

163 


164 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Creek, Michigan City, and also the site of Little Fort 1750- 
1800, a short distance southwest of Mount Tom, on a high 
bluff bordering the small stream called Fort Creek. 

Also he had traced ancient mounds, Indian trails and 
villages, stage roads, etc., in the Dunes, and had interviewed 
many old residents; had shown and described a number of 
these historic places to members of the Prairie Club, and 
other friends, who were amazed at the richness of the 
historic material found in the Dune region; and had also 
lectured upon the same subject to different organizations. 
For over thirty years he had labored to have the Dunes 
made a State Park by Indiana. 

As a result, after the Memorial Day exercise on May 30, 
1916, the help of the author was asked by numerous mem- 
bers of the Prairie Club in furnishing material for an his- 
toric pageant on Memorial Day, 1917, portraying the history 
of the Dunes from the earliest times, with the successive 
occupations by the different nations that had occupied this 
Northwest Territory. This would call attention to the 
beauty of the Dunes, so we could work better for a National 
Park. This request was granted and material prepared. 

In the meantime much interest was developing on the 
question of a National Dunes Park. 

Doctor Cowles’ report about the great reputation of the 
Dunes in Europe astonished the public greatly, and aroused 
much interest in the Dune region. The people of Indiana 
now began to speak proudly of “our Dunes.’ There was 
much talk of a National Dunes Park, and Senator Thomas 
Taggart, of Indiana, who had visited the Dune region and 
was strongly impressed with its wild beauty, had a bill 
passed in Congress in 1916, calling for a committee to in- 


HOVAG ATYAAV M 











if 
\ 





DUNES NATIONAL PARK 105 


vestigate the desirability of having the Dune region from 
Gary to Michigan City set aside as a National Dunes Park. 

Mr. Stephen T. Mather, of Chicago, Assistant Secretary 
of the Interior, and Director of National Parks, was au- 
thorized to call: a meeting on October 30, 1916, at the 
Federal Building in Chicago to discuss the question of mak- 
ing a National Park of the Dunes. 

At this meeting a large number of Dune lovers were 
present to give their views on the proposed National Dunes 
Park. There were botanists and zoologists; geologists and 
geographers; artists and sculptors; authors and actors; 
poets and historians; preachers and teachers; clubmen and 
club women; statesmen and officials. Nature lovers all. 

Mr. Mather gave a splendid talk in which he made this 
point clear. The government had never condemned any 
land for park purposes but had used its own land. It had, 
however, bought land for conservation purposes so as to 
‘conserve the head waters of large rivers. It had also 
bought small tracts that were situated within a National 
Park. 

He also explained the difference between a National Park 
and a National Monument. The National Park must be 
approved by Congress and the president, and so far all have 
been taken from government property. The National 
Monument is any piece of public property noted for scenic 
beauty, historic associations, or other interest, and made into 
a National Monument by proclamation of the president 
alone. 

A National Monument may be made from private prop- 
erty, state park, etc., if approved by the president, and 
accepted as a Monument. These pieces of private or state 


166 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


property must be donated free to the government, which, 
if it accepts the gift, assumes all the authority. Congress 
does not need to approve these. 

The National Monument is generally on a smaller scale 
than the National Park; but, both are parts of the National 
Park system, and both are supported by the government. 
Mr. Mather stated that in his estimation the Dune region 
was wild and charming enough to be made into a National 
Park. 

After this scholarly presentation of the case, Mr. Mather 
called upon some of the leading Dune lovers to express their 
views. Many splendid talks were given and much valuable 
information imparted. A full account of the meeting is 
given in the Report on the Proposed Dunes National Park, 
given out by the Department of the Interior, and it is to be 
hoped that every reader will be able to get a copy of it 
from the government. 

A striking scene was that in which a gentleman speaking 
in behalf of the Pottawottomie Indians stated that they re- 
nounced their claim to the Dune region and wished to re- 
cord themselves as being in favor of a great National 
Dunes Park. 

The interest in the Dunes National Park project had be- 
come so wide-spread before the spring of 1917, however, 
that a number of organizations begged to be allowed to 
participate with us, and produce an Historic Pageant on a 
larger scale. 

After some discussion, this was granted, on condition 
that the Prairie Club still have general control of it. A new 
organization, called the Dunes Pageant Association, was 
formed February, 1917, with Mr. James L. Houston, Jr., as 


DUNES NATIONAL PARK 167 


president, and Mrs. Frank M. Durfee as secretary, both of 
the Prairie Club. As the Dunes Pageant was now to be 
planned on a large scale, the Committee decided to employ 
Mr. Thomas Wood Stevens, President of the American 
Pageant Association, as Pageant Author. 

Mr. Stevens was at first elected director of the pageant, 
so the author turned over to him the history of the region 
that had been prepared for the Prairie Club Pageant, with 
additional information’ which he used for his new play, 
with further assistance from Miss Caroline Mcllvaine, of 
the Chicago Historical Society. 


PROGRAM 
PAGEANT OF THE DUNES 


THE DuNES UNDER Four FLAGS 
CAST OF CHARACTERS 


Episode No. 1 


Beem LOUNGE At eo oe Sa Donald Robertson 
1675—Marquette Scene --_----_-__- University of Chicago 
CST ee Ot aU ERS CRT i LI R. A. Talcott 


Episode No. 2 
1661—La Salle Scene ___.___-~_- Prairie Club of Chicago 
Wendell Phillips High School 
Nicholas Senn High School 
EU ct seas 0 i RS OOS ae al G. H. Fenn 


Episode No. 3 


1780—De Linctot Scene—Notre Dame University, Indiana 
DEC AOC LOL reeene ear rerek John Lemmer 


168 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Episode No. 4 
1781—Spanish March ___--_-_ De Paul University, Chicago 
Captain Don Eugenio Pierrot__---_-_ Robert Ward 
Episode No. 5 


1804-12—Fort Dearborn Scene 
Turner Society of Chicago 


Captain Nathan riealcie see ea F. Roebeneck 
Episode No. 6 | 

1834-1840-—City ‘West ao luo eee Gary, Indiana 

Daniel W ebstenuswom. eee een Harvey Watson 

Director of the Dune Dances——————Mary Wood Hinman 

Director ot; Music: oa) 4S ees pear C. Gordon Wedertz 

Designer of Costumes _____--- Mrs. Dan Sayres Grosbeck 


The scene of the pageant was laid in the great hollow or 
blowout called Jens Jensen Blowout, bordering’ on Lake 
Michigan, about two blocks west of Fort Creek, at Waverly 
Beach, and on a direct line north from the Portchester 
Road. The bottom of this natural bowl is several hundred 
feet across, and near the north end of it a high stand for 
the speakers was erected, facing this great amphitheater. 
From the top of the great, wide, sand plateau at the south of 
the blowout, can be seen Mount Tom, about a half-mile 
to the east, with its two neighbors to the east, Mounts 
Holden and Green, so closely bound together in their beau- 
tiful chain of glistening sand, lofty pines and oaks, bosky 
dells and protecting vines, that the early settlers named these 
three beautiful peaks “The Three Sisters.” 


DUNES NATIONAL PARK 169 


When the day of the pageant arrived, great throngs 
wended their way to the natural amphitheater used for the 
occasion. The various committees had worked hard and 
had succeeded in getting things into proper shape. The 
people arrived on foot, by carriage, wagons and autos; the 
majority, many thousands, by train from the South Shore 
Line stopping at Portchester, just west of Tremont. 
They settled themselves in front of the stage and on the 
sloping hills on every side, which gave admirable seats from 
which to view the pageant. Over thirty thousand were 
present, and if the weather had not been so threatening, 
double that number would have been there. As it was, it 
was an impressive sight to see that vast body of people 
present to show their sympathy with an ideal—the ideal of 
beauty. 

The pageant was scheduled to begin at two-thirty in the 
afternoon, but many visitors made a day of it in the Dunes. 
The large number of actors and actresses in their beautiful, 
rare or bizarre costumes were striking, and aroused much 
interest. The soldiers of the different countries made a 
particularly martial and impressive appearance. 

The weather looked very ‘threatening, but finally the 
pageant was started with Donald Robertson as the Pageant 
Master. In a rich, solemn, and rolling voice that swelled 
over that vast audience, he depicted the love of the Indians 
for the Dune country, and their sorrow at leaving it. At 
one time he called on Great Manitou to show his love for 
the Indians and their beloved home, the beautiful Dunes, 
and then stood with upraised arms, awaiting an answer. 
The words had hardly been uttered, when a most dramatic 


170 THE WONDERS OF THE. DUNES 


and remarkable incident occurred. As if in answer to the 
Prophet’s appeal for protection to the red men, while still 
in his pose of supplication, the heavens opened with a fierce 
electric display all over the lake and the Dunes, followed 
by continuous, deafening crashes of thunder, reverberating 
through the hills and valleys, which continued for some 
time. It was thrilling; yea, awe-inspiring! 

This was followed in a few minutes by rain; not a gentle 
shower but a veritable cloud-burst, in keeping with the 
previous electric and thunder-storms. The pageant was 
momentarily suspended, while people looked for shelter. 

The advantages of this natural amphitheater were at once 
apparent. Many of those seated in the hollow who were 
without umbrellas retired to the sides of the hills, and like 
those already there, dug holes two or three feet across and 
the same in depth. ‘They carefully seated themselves in 
these pits and partly covered themselves with the sand, in 
some cases clear to their shoulders, saying, “Better wet 
heads than wet feet.” 

They looked so comfortable that many people with um- 
brellas followed suit, sheltering their heads with the 
umbrellas. It was an odd sight indeed to see the hillside 
dotted with hundreds of these people in their little dugouts, 
some with umbrellas, most without; but, it showed good 
judgment. 

After this first deluge, attempts to continue the pageant 
were made several times, but the rain storms became so 
frequent that it was finally called off until the next Sunday, 
June third, and the ticket holders were notified that they 
would be admitted free on that day. 


DUNES NATIONAL PARK 171 


It was a great disappointment to the many thousand 
spectators, as well as to the many hundreds who had worked 
so hard to present this pageant in a fitting manner. It was 
a very sensible idea, however, to have two performances, 
in case the first one should be a failure through bad weather. 

The following Sunday, June third, was a beautiful day, 
and thousands of people were present to enjoy the famed 
Pageant of the Dunes. The level ground directly in front 
of the grand stand was packed, and the slopes of the great 
amphitheater were well filled by the people from many 
cities and towns. 

The brilliant costumes of the soldiers of the different 

nations that claimed this region; the quaint and picturesque 
regalia and the ornamentation of the various Indian tribes, 
for both warriors and squaws; the fleecy, brightly-colored 
costumes of the many wood nymphs, spirits and elves, to- 
gether with the buckskin and fur costumes of the hunters 
and pioneers, lent such an air of brightness and enchant- 
ment to the landscape that it seemed a bit of Fairy-land. 
_ The pageant was rendered in a most beautiful, fascinating 
and impressive manner. Everybody was in earnest— 
actors, officials and assistants—because the motive of this 
beautiful pageant was a great idea—the saving of the Dunes 
—by calling the attention of the people to its wonderful 
beauty and wonderful history. 

The pageant closed with a grand review of the seven 
hundred actors in this magnificent Pageant of the Dunes. 
It was a glorious sight when all of the people, radiant in 
bearing and bright and beautiful in costume, rallied to the 
colors, behind 


172 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


THE CALUMET 
FRENCH FLAG 
BRITISH FLAG 
SPANISH FLAG 
AMERICAN FLAG: 


and the Prophet, at the head of the Grand Parade, bearing 
the AMERICAN FLAG, led this vast assemblage of 
twenty-five thousand people in singing The Star-Spangled 
Banner! 

It was a beautiful finale to this magnificent pageant; and 
as the swelling tones of our national anthem, led by the 
wonderful voice of the Prophet, ascended unto heaven, this 
feeling and desire stirred the hearts of all; “May this 
beautiful Duneland be a heritage of the people forever 
more !”’ 

This question has often been asked, “Was this great 
pageant worth while?’ Yes, it was. For here were crys- 
tallized the different phases of Dune character—its beauty 
and its desolation—its restful peace, and the terrific evidence 
of its storms—its primitive wildness and the everchanging 
newness of its neighboring cities—the birch-bark canoe and 
the palatial steamer that plows the azure waters of the 
mighty inland ocean that washes its sandy shores—the poor 
Indian with his untutored mind and savage nature, and the 
cultured American enjoying this historic portrayal of the 
life of the Dunes. 

All of these sights have brought to the onlooker the true 
life history of the Dunes, and have portrayed them so 
vividly that they stand out as real things. They have burned 
into his consciousness the belief that the Dunes should be 


DUNES NATIONAL PARK 173 


a thing apart from commercial, industrial or urban life, and 
should be preserved as a great park for the people. 

The World War checked all efforts to acquire the Dunes 
as a National Park. Congress was too busy in preparing 
for and prosecuting the war. When this was successfully 
finished, national interest had abated to a great extent, and 
very little effort has since been made to carry it out as a 
National Park, until the National Dunes Park Association 
was formed. 

Mr. W. B. Gleason, of the United States Steel Corpora- 
tion, of Gary, is president, and Mrs. Frank Sheehan, a mem- 
ber of the Indiana D. A. R., is secretary. The Association 
is working hard to get a National Park; if not that, then a 
State Park. It is painfully evident that if we are to have 
any kind of a large Duneland Park it must be a State Park 
at first. At present there is quite a call from the people 
of Indiana for a State Dune Park. They are proud of the 
Dunes. 

This seems to be the most feasible plan. It would be a 
disgrace to have all of this wonderful Dune country given 
up to industrial plants, for it is needed as a resting-place 
and playground for the myriads of people who will event- 
ually dwell in this marvelous industrial region. 

A large tract, including the wildest and most picturesque 
part of the Dunes should be condemned by the State of 
Indiana, and should extend from Meadow Brook on the 
west to past Tamarack, on the east, making a tract eight 
miles wide, four miles on each side of the Valparaiso Road, 
at Tremont. This tract should extend from Lake Michigan 
to the Chicago, Lake Shore and South Bend Railway, taking 
in about eight thousand acres. 


174 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


It would contain the charming hill and chain-of-lakes 
region from Meadow Brook to Oak Hill, and also the beau- 
tiful Cowles Tamarack Swamp at Mineral Springs; the 
Leman Ridge of sand-dunes from Oak Hill to Portchester ; 
the Mount Tom Ridge, from Waverly Beach to Polk Slide, 
and the Wells Ridge, from Polk Slide to the section line 
a short distance east of Tamarack. It would also take in 
the great Jens Jensen Blowout, near Waverly Beach, and 
the great Furnessville Blowout; include the site of Little 
Fort, many Indian trails and post roads, and the beautiful 
Pine Tree Trail with the grand, impressive groups of great 
pines from Drury’s to the Furnessville Blowout, and the 
famous Polk Slide. Truly, a wonderful park! 

Mr. Richard Lieber, the highly efficient director of the 
Indiana Department of Conservation, has made a careful 
study of the Dunes. Its wonderful beauty, its many rare 
plants, birds and animals, and its remarkable history, have 
so impressed him that he is booming it for a State Park, 
taking in the eight miles of beautiful hills, lakes, creeks 
and marshes, from Meadow Brook to beyond Tamarack. 

He and the Indiana Nature Club, which under its presi- 
dent, the late Doctor Frank B. Wynn, paid a visit to the 
Dunes on May 15-16, 1920, were entertained at the Beach 
House by the Prairie Club. They explored the Dunes, and 
showed themselves to be an unusually well informed club 
on all phases of natural history. They were astonished and 
delighted at the wonders of the Dune region, and said they 
would work very hard toward having the Dunes made a 
State Park. 

Senators Charles J. Buchanan and Colonel Robert L. 
Moorhead, of the Indiana State Senate, who visited the 


DUNES NATIONAL PARK 175 


Dunes in February, 1921, reported to the Indiana Legisla- 
ture regarding the advisability of purchasing part of the 
Dunes as a State Park. 

A number of Dune experts were invited to meet them 
and show them the leading features of the Dunes, the author 
specializing on its wonderful history. Both Senator Bucha- 
nan and Colonel Moorhead are sportsmen and hikers; out- 
of-door men; and they were pleased with the beauty, rare 
plants, birds and animals of the Dunes, and especially its 
wonderful history. They thought that some beautiful part 
of the Dunes should be preserved for a State Park for the 
benefit of the people. They also said they would ask for 
an appropriation to mark historic sites and trails through- 
out the state. 

It will cost about two million dollars to purchase this 
beautiful Duneland Park. The Indiana idea was to have 
the Indiana Legislature appropriate one million in ten annual 
installments, provided that outside parties or organizations 
subscribe an equal sum, on the same terms. As the out- 
siders seemed unwilling to do that Governor McCray has 
postponed action. 

In the latter part of June, 1922, the Indiana Federation 
of Women’s Clubs, under the leadership of Mrs. Frank J. 
Sheehan, Chairman of the State Department of Conserva- 
tion, and also Secretary of the National Dunes Park Asso- 
ciation, held a series of meetings for two weeks at Tremont, 
to further the efforts toward making a State Park of the 
Dunes. 

Prominent Indiana clubwomen, members of the Indiana 
Legislature, historians and nature lovers, were present, and 
many interesting talks were given and papers read. The 


176 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Federation of Women’s Clubs, on their day, outlined their 
plans to aid in making a State Park of the Dunes. 

On Historical Day, the historical societies of Lake, 
Porter, LaPorte and St. Joseph Counties gave some inter- 
esting accounts of the early history of this region. After 
their meeting, a pilgrimage was made to the Bailly Home- 
stead, which is now a religious home, and Reverend Eberly, 
who is in charge, gave the visitors a cordial reception, 
showed them around the place and also the Bailly cemetery, 
recently sold to a farmer. 

On Statesmen’s Day, a number of members of the Indi- 
ana Legislature were present at the Beach House. They 
visited the leading points of interest of the Tremont region, 
and were amazed and pleased at the beauty of the Dunes, 
and its rare plants and birds. They thought part of this re- 
gion-should be preserved and were of the opinion it would 
be better to start with a small State Park, say about three 
miles, and add to it later. Unless very quick action is taken, 
it will be too late to have a real Dune Park, as the Dunes 
are being destroyed. no 

The whole program was a great tribute to the unceasing 
labor of Mrs. Sheehan, who has done so much toward mak- 
ing a State Park of the Dunes. 

In October, 1922, the Indiana State Conservation Com- 
mission, with a number of members of the Legislature, vis- 
ited the Dunes, and expressed the greatest interest and pride 
in them, as a most beautiful section of Indiana. Mr. Lieber, 
the Director of the Conservation Department, said that 
now was the time to get this wonderful region for a park, 
and recommended that the eight-mile strip from Meadow 
Brook to Tamarack, with the center at Tremont, be secured 


DUNES NATIONAL PARK 177 


for a State Park. Mr. Guthrie, the Chairman of the Com- 
mission, expressed his surprise and pleasure at the beauty 
of the Dunes, which he considered a most wonderful region. 

The Dunes have so impressed themselves upon the public 
eye as an ideal State Park, that the State of Indiana has 
agreed with the government to construct a most excellent 
highway called the Dunes Highway, from Michigan City to 
Gary, a distance of twenty-five miles, on the south side of the 
Chicago, Lake Shore and South Bend Electric Railroad, or 
South Shore Electric. It is a half-mile south of the Dunes, 
and the first section of twelve and one-half miles, from 
Michigan City to Baileytown follows the old winding De- 
troit-Chicago Road, which just west of Baileytown trends 
to the southwest and crosses the Calumet River opposite 
Dune Park. This road is about level, and has few difficul- 
ties to conquer. It was finished and ready for use about 
December I, 1922. 

The second section of twelve and one-half miles extends 
from Baileytown to Gary and seven miles of this goes 
through deep swamps; also part of it over steep sand-hills. 
It is adjacent to the South Shore Electric on the south. 
This road is exceedingly difficult to build, as the swamps 
are very deep, and some of the sand-dunes are over fifty feet 
high, requiring some deep cutting. The road-bed through 
the swamps is sand, that is packed so hard by hydraulic 
pressure that it is practically sandstone, and will stand very 
great pressure or jarring. 

The government is supporting this Dunes Highway from 
a practical standpoint also. It wishes this road to be part 
of a plan to aid transportation, by building a road so very 
strong that heavy loads can be hauled between Detroit and 


178 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Chicago. That is its chief aim in building the Dunes 
Highway. 

By combining that with the aim of Indiana people to have 
a splendid road that will skirt the beautiful Dune country, 
both aims can be utilized. The road is twenty-five miles 
long, twenty feet wide, and is covered with concrete eight 
inches thick, put on a very solid foundation, and with a very 
rough hard surface, to prevent skidding and breaking. Sec- 
dion one from Michigan City to Baileytown, and the higher 
parts of section two, are reenforced with five one inch thick 
iron rods, placed lengthwise, and braced with cross-pieces. 

The road through the swamp is made unusually strong, 
and is not yet completed. The parts completed have the 
sand compressed to sandstone; iron bars are placed across 
every three inches for reenforcement, and are bolted to- 
gether. The sides, especially where the road is five or six 
feet above the swamp, are reenforced with iron bars, all 
fastened together. Mr. Moe, the Gary contractor, who has 
this section, says it is the most remarkable highway ever 
built in this country, and that engineers from all over the 
country are studying it. There is to be a five-foot path 
along the sides of this whole road. This Gary-Baileytown 
section is to be finished before the summer of 1923. 

This beautiful Dune region of Indiana is supplemented 
just across the state line by the beautiful Forest Preserves 
of Cook County, Illinois. Fine concrete and macadamized 
roads connect both the Indiana and Illinois beauty spots, 
so that the residents of both states have a splendid oppor- 
tunity to admire the beautiful scenery of the adjoining 
territory. 

Chicago has long felt the need of more park space. She 


DUNES NATIONAL PARK 179 


has one of the best park systems in the world, but the teem- 
ing population of her great city needs more open space 
in which to enjoy nature. The Valparaiso Moraine and the 
Glenwood, Calumet and Tolleston Beaches—the Duneland 
of old Lake Chicago—that curve through this region, con- 
tain many most beautiful spots of hill and dale, lake and 
river, woods and swamps. 

The Forest Preserve Commission of Cook County has 
been able to purchase about twenty-five thousand acres of 
the most picturesque parts of Illinois for the pleasure of the 
people. They range from the beautiful Turnbull Woods at 
the northern part of the county, to the very picturesque hilly 
and thickly-forested sections on the Thorn Creek sections 
bordering Indiana at Chicago Heights, Glenwood and 
Thornton, and are connected with the Indiana Dune region 
by numerous fine roads. 

Honorable Peter Reinberg, recently deceased, the broad- 
minded, genial President of the Forest Preserve Commis- 
sion of Cook County, was as determined to give Cook 
County the finest system of Forest Preserves of any county 
in the United States as Honorable Charles A. Wacker, the 
enthusiastic, energetic President of the “Chicago Beautiful” 
Commission, is to make Chicago the most beautiful city in 
the world! 

Both of these aims are very likely to be realized, as the 
natural features are present here, and Chicago’s modest 
motto, “I Will,’ points the way toward achievements and 
her great public spirit will provide the means. The people 
of Chicago are doing all in their power to enable Mr. 
Wacker to carry out his “heart’s desire.” 

Many of the most interesting and picturesque spots in 


180 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


the country are found in these different parks or preserves. 
They were among the chosen spots of the Indians of the 
Chicago Dune region, and many of their villages were lo- 
cated there. Relics of them are abundant, and traditions 
concerning them are legion. 

The Thornton region, which General Hull gives as the 
main Pottawottomie town of the Chicago Dune region, is 
replete with Indian relics, and steeped in Indian lore. A 
visit to this park by the author, as guest of the Thornton 
and Glenwood historian, Mr. Andrew Diekman, is remem- 
bered with the keenest pleasure, as Mr. Diekman and the 
author went over the ground carefully, locating Indien vil- 
lages, Indian trails, pioneer roads, etc. 

It is strongly to be hoped that these beauty spots and 
historical places throughout the country be preserved for our 
children, so that they can enjoy some nature “‘in the wild” 
as did our pioneer forefathers. They should know and 
cherish the wild flowers that beautify the landscapes with 
their dainty forms and colors, and prevent such desecration 
as harasses that most popular person of the Dunes, Mrs. 
M. F. Green, of Tremont, when bands of lovely, enthusiastic 
young girls from Chicago and other cities pillage her straw- 
berry beds, gathering hundreds of “such fine white violets,” 
and break off many peach twigs, laden with hundreds of 
peach blossoms, praising them as “fine wild flowers.” Large, 
wild, public parks will correct this ignorance; and of them 
all, none will be of greater service to the nation than a large 
Duneland Park. 


PART TWO 


aHRE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 





CHAPTER XV 
THE BEAUTIES OF THE DUNES 


From the dawn of history the Dune region of Lake 
Michigan has been one of the centers of interest to the 
peoples who inhabited America. Its commanding position 
at the southern shores of Lake Michigan, the center where 
the trails from the North and South crossed those from 
the East and the West, where the rivers from Lake Michi- 
gan are connected by short portages with the Kankakee and 
the Desplaines, gave it a preeminence that made it a well- 
known center over all the continent. 

In addition to its geographical position, the Dune region 
for centuries has exercised a charm peculiarly its own, that 
is now being appreciated by people from all over the world. 

The great sand-ridges, crowned in many cases with living 
green; the magnificent view of Lake Michigan, stretching 
northward for over three hundred miles, beautiful in all 
her moods, whether beaming like a sunny, shimmering 
mirror, reflecting the azure sky, decorated with drifting 
bands of fleecy cloud, or agitated by a mighty storm, cast- 
ing its spray far up on the sandy beach, and baptizing the 
great dunes themselves; the deep picturesque glens, and 
low woodlands with their wealth of trees, vines and flowers 
in almost tropical luxuriance, are all enchanting. 


183 


184 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


The winding rivers and creeks that pierce the encircling 
dunes, carrying their toll of glistening sand to the lake; 
the shallow lakes and great grassy marshes, dotted here 
and there with lilies, bulrushes and pondweed and harboring 
thousands of fish and water fowls; all these in their myriad 
forms present vistas that are beautiful, wonderful and 
alluring. They reveal continually something new and strik- 
ing, and compel one to come again for rest and exploration. 

One who has never seen the Dunes has no conception of 
their beauty. He thinks of them as mere sand-hills, of bare 
glistening sand—a veritable Sahara. If he skirts the Dunes 
in a train or auto, he can see not only the great dunes of 
elistening sand but also the belts of forest, trees and other 
vegetation, with the sides bordered by marshes. If his 
curiosity is sufficiently aroused to take a trip through the 
Dunes, he will find himself in a new world. 

The many enchanting views spreading before him; the 
old, stately trees and beautiful flowers found everywhere; 
the Indian trails winding over the hills and through bosky 
glens and dense jungles; the old post road from Detroit and 
Michigan City that followed the beach from Michigan City 
to Polk’s Slide near Tremont, thence winding through 
Dune Park, or Miller, then back to the beach again, along 
which the road ran to Chicago—all these are beautiful and 
interesting. 

After a trip of this kind, one comes home invigorated— 
physically, mentally and spiritually—for everything in the 
depths of the Dunes is so charming with its combination 
of lakes and dunes, forests and flowers that one can appre- 
ciate the reverent feeling that inspired Linnzus, the cele- 
brated Swedish botanist, who when he first visited Germany 


THE BEAUTIES OF THE DUNES 185 


and saw the moors of that country covered with the flowers 
of the heath, knelt down and thanked God that He had 
decorated those rough and desolate moors with such a 
beautiful carpet. 

The visitor should take a good field-glass and climb to 
the top of one of the dunes—Mount Tom, at Tremont, for 
example, two hundred feet high—and view the surrounding 
country. He can see that the prevalent idea that the Dune 
country is an arid waste is all wrong. People hear of the 
shifting dunes covering forests; they see pictures of dunes 
gradually disappearing, but they do not see nor hear much 
of the rank and luxuriant vegetation that covers the greater 
part of the Dune region. 

They do not know that the Dunes were originally covered 
with giant pines which were still in existence when the white 
people came in the early days, and when these pines disap- 
peared, mainly from the lumbering in the first half of the 
past century, other trees, principally the oak, sprang up in 
_ their places. 

The Dunes, disturbed by the fall of these trees, began in 
places of great disturbance to crumble, and under the in- 
fluence of the wind, to drift and eventually form great mov- 
ing dunes which cover forests and marshes. This can be 
easily seen from the summit of Mount Tom, or its neigh- 
boring dunes, Mount Holden, which is about one hundred 
ninety feet high, and Mount Green, one hundred eighty-five 
feet, and also from Mount Tim and Mount Leman at Min- 
eral Springs, and others at Dune Park and Miller. 

To the north is Lake Michigan, the Lac Illinois of Father 
Marquette; the Mitchigamie or Big Water of the Indians, 
with its invigorating breezes brought down from the north, 


186 THE WONDERS OF "THE DUNES 


carrying its ozone-laden fragrance with it. Over three hun- 
dred miles of cool, fresh water on which the breezes in their 
flight generate such an enormous amount of electricity that 
it combines with the oxygen of the air and forms ozone-o— 
a sour-smelling gas or concentrated oxygen, perceptible 
when lightning strikes near one. This ozone when mixed 
with the air is so bracing that it impels one to expand his 
chest, throw back his shoulders and take in all the air that 
his lungs can hold, until he feels a glow throughout his body 
and his brain becomes as clear as a bell. All fatigue is 
gone and one is possessed with a feeling of radiant health. 

This is also the effect produced upon one by the ozonic 
air of the seashore or mountain top; but it is not necessary 
to go to these far-off places for health and recreation, for 
the same combination of scenery, seashore, hill climbing 
and ozonic air is found here in the Dune region. Doctor 
Stillman E. Bailey recommends the Dunes greatly for 
nervous troubles. 

That is the reason that a large part of this region should 
be set aside by the United States government, or the State 
of Indiana, as a park for the benefit of the large number 
of people who would be benefited by its use as a recreative, 
health-giving, historic center. It would be a Mecca for 
five million people, and should be purchased by the govern- 
ment or the state. 

A view from Mount Tom reveals the lake to the north; a 
black smudge on the horizon shows the passage of a steamer, 
bound for Chicago. A glimmer of white reveals a dainty 
yacht out for a pleasure cruise. Along the shore, trim 
canoes are skimming the waves as they dart along, paddled 
by athletic youths. The bathing beaches at Miller, Waverly 


THE BEAUTIES OF THE DUNES 187 


Beach, Michigan City and Sheridan Beach section are 
crowded by thousands of people who have forsaken the city 
to frolic in the bracing water of Lake Michigan. 

To the east of Mount Tom lies the Beach House of the 
Prairie Club, surrounded in summer by a colony of tents and 
cottages, belonging to the members of the club. To the 
northeast, about nine miles away, where Trail Creek winds 
its way between the lofty sand-dunes, can be seen the smoke 
from the factories of Michigan City, that thriving com- 
munity that represents the eastern edge of the Chicago 
region. : 

To the south, ridges of dunes encircle the shores of Lake 
Michigan; some covered with verdure, others glistening 
with their wealth of coral-like sand on its victorious march 
against the forests, glens and swamps. Three or four 
main ridges are supplemented by a number of short ones, 
filled with trees, vines and flowers. 

Far to the south appear the great swamps, heavily bor- 
dered with trees on the dune side. On the south side of 
the swamps are the old ridges of the Tolleston Beach that 
was thrown up by old Lake Chicago, in ancient, post-glacial 
days. The elevated ridge or beach, at the foot of which 
the old Chicago Road runs from Michigan City to Culver’s 
Point on the Calumet River near Dune Park, and on part 
of which the South Shore Electric has its road-bed, is the 
old Calumet Beach thrown up by the waters of Lake Chi- 
cago in ancient days. 

Opposite Dune Park, the Calumet Beach, combined with 
the Glenwood Beach, is found south of the Little Calumet, 
and is plainly seen at South Gary or Glen Park, as the 
Ridge Road is built on the old Calumet Ridge or Beach. 


188 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Farther to the southwest is seen the old Glenwood Beach, 
which separates from the Calumet Beach near Furnessville, 
and on which the Michigan Central Railroad pursues its 
way to Michigan City. 

From the west a large steam freighter approaches, as if 
on its way to Michigan City. When near Waverly Beach it 
suddenly turns and steams toward the shore as if it would 
fain climb the dunes. Just before it reaches the shore, it 
stops and remains there for a long time, apparently busy at 
something. It is a giant sand-sucker, getting sand from 
the bottom of the lake near Waverly Beach for use in con- 
structing the great Field Columbian Museum at Grant Park, 
Chicago. 

This sand speculation is the true basis of the report that 
a wealthy contractor had bought Mount Tom and was 
going to sell it for its sand. One report had it that the 
Indiana Southern Railroad at Dune Park intended to extend 
its line to Michigan City; another stated that Dune Creek, 
the old Fort Creek, was going to be dredged out at Waverly 
Beach so that vessels could come into the creek and receive 
sand by way of a short railway that was to extend from 
Mount Tom to Waverly Beach. This report aroused much 
indignation over the whole country and swelled the popular 
sentiment toward making a National Park of the Dune 
region, thus contributing greatly to the slogan, “Save the 
Dunes.” : 

Mr. A. F. Knotts, the builder of the Calumet region of 
Indiana, who bought up Gary for the Illinois Steel Company 
and who as mayor of Hammond located many industrial 
plants there, as well as in other sections of the Calumet 
region, states that the foundation of this story is that 


THE BEAUTIES OF THE DUNES 189 


he was asked whether sand was available from the Dune 
region for the Field Museum. He told the inquirer that 
he could have all the sand he wanted, if he would take it 
from the lake in front of Mr. Knotts’ property near Mount 
Tom. This the contractor agreed to do. 

Mr. Knotts told this story to a group of us at Waverly 
Beach as we watched the great sand-sucker at work only 
two blocks away, in front of the Jens Jensen Blowout where 
the Dunes Pageant was staged later. 

To the east and to the west of Mount Tom, a splendid 
view opens of the long stretch of dunes that border the 
southern shore of Lake Michigan for more than twenty-five 
miles, with their varied and beautiful hills and ridges, cov- 
ered with highly interesting vegetation. The Beach House of 
the Prairie Club is but a half-mile east of Mount Tom, at 
Tremont. Waverly Beach is but a quarter-mile west of it 
at the mouth of Fort Creek. 

About six miles to the west of Dune Park, the eastern 
part of which is still beautiful, is Miller, with its fine beach, 
scenery and recreation facilities, making it one of the 
famous places in the Dunes. It has been annexed by Gary, 
which has a beautiful park and beach here. 

Four miles west of Miller is Gary, the Steel City of the 
West and the home of the United States Steel Corporation. 
This betrays its presence from afar by great columns of 
smoke and flame that pierce the sky from its many mills 
which support the people of the city. 

If one wishes solitude, the Dunes is the place. One can 
find it from any of the stations that dot the South Shore 
Electric, by walking northward through the Dunes a mile 
or more to Lake Michigan. One of the most fascinating 


190 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


walks is along the lake shore for miles, with a stiff breeze 
blowing off the lake, churning the waters into spray as they 
strike the shallows and come thundering up the beach. 


CHAPTER XVI 
GEOGRAPHY 


AFTER one has visited the Dunes a few times and has 
discovered some of their beauties and attractions, he is 
anxious to know more about them: their origin and extent; 
their plants, birds and animals; the history of the region; 
the old Indian trails; pioneer routes and post roads; old 
forts, expeditions and battles of the Northwest. 

The Dune region in its present entirety embraces the 
southern shores of Lake Michigan that are covered with 
sand-ridges or dunes and extends from Chicago beyond 
Saugatuck, Michigan. This sand has been deposited mainly 
on the southwestern, southern and southeastern shores, as 
Lake Michigan has a current that flows south along the 
Wisconsin coast, following the Illinois, Indiana and Michi- 
gan coasts, and passing through Mackinaw Strait into Lake 
Huron. This current has washed away most of the sand- 
dunes formerly deposited north of Chicago. 

Some of the sand is blown into the lake, to be cast up 
again by the waves. The observer can see the waves leave 
a faint line of sand on the beach, showing where the crest 
of the wave has reached; sometimes the waves will leave a 
wider ribbon, of quaint arabesque design. It is a pleasure 
to tramp along the shore of the lake for five or ten miles, 


IQI 


192 THE WONDERS OF THE: DUNES 


studying these beautiful combinations, and watching the 
myriad forms of the waves and breakers as they come 
thundering in, throwing up the spray as they strike the 
shallows, and, dashing up the beach, leave their freight of 
sand as a memento of their visit. 

In the great storm of November, 1917, with the wind 
blowing eighty miles an hour, the waves were driven inland 
with such force that the sand-ridges were washed away for 
one hundred feet from the lake line. The waves cut away 
the lake dunes so severely that for many miles it looked as 
if they had been cut down by soldiers to form a gigantic 
trench, as the sides of the trench were from three to ten 
feet high, with perfectly straight walls and level floors. 

The highest places were near the Furnessville Blowout, 
about two miles east of Tremont and at the beach near 
Mount Tom. It was a remarkable sight, as many relics of 
former beach levels, such as stones, shells, pieces of wood, 
etc., could be seen embedded at varying altitudes in the 
walls of the trench. 

The sand absorbed by the lake is soon deposited again on 
the shore, and is blown inland by the winds from the north 
and west, forming encircling ridges of sand, which, with 
valleys and meshes, constitute the Dunes. Those covered 
with vegetation, holding the sand and giving the Dunes a 
more or less permanent character, are called fixed or dead 
dunes. According to its plant growth, this seems to be a 
misnomer, but it is accurate from a geologic standpoint, as 
the dune or hill does not move. 

The shifting dune, with its material of moving sand, is 
called a live or shifting dune, because it, as a dune, is mov- 


ing, although there is not a living plant upon it. These 


LAOMOTY TWIdAT V 





GEOGRAPHY 193 


terms excite wonderment, and even protest, from many 
people, who insist that the dune covered with vegetation 1s 
the living dune, and the shifting dune, devoid of vegetation, 
is the dead dune. 

Back of the Lake Michigan dunes from one to ten miles 
are various high ridges or beaches of sand that were for- 
merly great dunes and ridges, cast up on the shores of 
Lake Chicago. These beaches extend from Green Bay in 
Wisconsin, along the shores of Lake Michigan to Southern 
Michigan, following the coast line of the old Valparaiso 
Moraine, which was deposited by the Michigan Lobe of the 
Second Great Glacier at its southern terminus. 

From a cause not fully understood, Canada and the 
northern part of the United States were covered with a 
vast continental ice sheet, the First Great Glacier, hundreds 
of feet thick. Some authorities think that this glacial con- 
dition was caused by the elevation of the land in Upper 
Canada. Others think it was due to a change of the axis 
of the earth, or possibly to a change in the orbit, or a com- 
bination of both, causing more snow to fall in winter than 
could be melted in summer. 

Possibly all three causes may have helped produce and 
maintain this glacial condition. The weight of the ice, plus 
the very frigid temperature, undoubtedly had great influence 
in cooling off the whole northern hemisphere, causing pow- 
erful contraction there; opening old lines of fracture and 
breaking out in new ones; forming volcanoes that threw out 
masses of lava, whose intense heat melted and vaporized 
immense fields of ice and snow. This vapor, drifting away 
from the heat, became condensed from the intense cold, and 
was again deposited in the form of snow, to be gradually 


194 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


compressed into ice by its continual accumulation and 
motion. 

The temperature in the northern hemisphere changed 
greatly at that time. Before the glacial period, the tempera- 
ture of Alaska, Northern Canada, Greenland, Northern 
Europe and Siberia was much warmer than at present, the 
coal-fields found there showing that a luxuriant vegetation, 
including even palms, flourished in those Arctic regions, 
together with wild animals as large as or even larger than 
those of to-day. 

This great Continental Ice Sheet had two main centers 
of glaciation, the Labrador and the Keewatin. The Labra- 
dor Glacier had its center in Labrador, and the ice from this 
central point moved in concentric lines from there in all 
directions, reaching down to the latitude of central Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, and leaving at its foot a gigantic ridge of 
dirt and stone called the terminal moraine of that glacier. 

The Keewatin Glacier, or ice sheet, had its center just 
west of Hudson Bay, and extended west to the Rockies, 
north to the Arctic, and south to part of the United States, 
extending in an irregular line from Missouri northwest to 
Canada. The Missouri River apparently follows the south 
side of this terminal moraine, just s the Ohio River follows 
south of the terminal moraine of the Labrador Glacier. 

These glaciers were not independent, as they were more 
or less united; but the moving force of one came from 
the northeast, as shown by the markings of the rocks, while 
that of the other came from the northwest. Many of the 
markings show that this ice came also from the north as 
the scratches or strie are north and south. 

This ice sheet moved down from the Canadian highlands 


GEOGRAPHY 195 


like a gigantic, irregular snow plow, pushing everything 
movable before it,—forests, soil, rocks; and even planing 
off tops and sides of mountains, scraping off everything— 
coal beds, shales and limestones—until it reached the bare 
solid rock. 

This enormous mass of material was carried or pushed 
along the glacier and most of it deposited at its foot. Much 
of it was frozen in the ice and served as tools with which 
to tear away rocks, cut them and with the assistance of the 
sand, soft soil and the ice itself, to polish them. Many 
stones have been found that are cut and polished as if by 
an expert stone-cutter. 

A striking example of this in our own region was seen 
many years ago at Stony Island, Chicago, a mile west of 
South Chicago, by the author, in company with Reverend 
D. S. McCaslin, of Pullman. We had taken many trips 
together to different places, and were making a detailed 
study of Stony Island, which must have been much higher 
before the glacier came and forced off its peak. 

It was at that time used as a stone quarry, two of them 
being in operation, one to the north, now filled by springs, 
and another, which is dry, at the south. We were watching 
the workmen stripping off the soil, which was over a foot 
deep near the north quarry, and were marveling at the fresh- 
ness and polish of the uncovered hard Niagara limestone, 
when Doctor McCaslin called attention to a deep scratch in 
the rock, running from the northeast to the southwest. 

We followed it for some rods, when Doctor McCaslin 
showed the chisel that had cut this deep scratch, and which 
he had found the day before. It was a sharp piece of 
granite that had been pushed along by the glacier, and being 


196 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


harder than the silicious limestone, had cut into it as it was 
pushed toward the southwest, and had been stopped when 
brought up against a very flinty piece of solid rock. The 
rock was so polished that it glistened. 

The underlying rock of the Chicago region extending to 
East Chicago, Indiana, is the Niagara limestone, which is 
hard and flinty, deposited in the ancient Paleozoic Sea, and 
filled with corals, crinoids and shells, both large and in- 
numerable microscopic ones, that lived in the shallow sea 
that covered this section of America. Stony Island is espe- 
cially rich in fossils of that period, but its limestone is very 
hard and tough, owing to the partial crystallization, caused 
by local disturbances which seem to have raised and bent 
it to a pitch of thirty-five degrees. 

Some of these quarries that are interesting and well worth 
visiting are at Stony Island, Cheltenham Beach, Thornton, 
Blue Island, Lemont, Elmhurst, Lyons, Hawthorne and 
Bridgeport. The Niagara surface rock extends to the west- 
ern part of Lake County, Indiana. It then sinks down, east 
of East Chicago, and from there to South Bend is covered 
over by the black Genesee shale of the Devonian Age, which 
becomes grayish when exposed to the air. 

As the Silurian Age, which formerly included the Ordi- 
vician, of which the Niagara period is a part, is called the 
Age of Shells or Mollusks, so the Devonian Age is called 
the Age of Fishes. Doctor Stuart Weller, of the Chicago 
Academy of Sciences, has found remnants of a formation 
of the Devonian Age at the quarry a mile west of Elmhurst, 
showing that beds of the Devonian Age once overlay the 
Niagara limestone in this region, but it was scraped off by | 
the glaciers, ground to powder and furnished most of the 


GEOGRAPHY 197 


clay that formed the Valparaiso Moraine and covered the 
rocks. 


“Whatever its nature, the rock formation immediately 
underlying the drift was at one time laid down as sedi- 
mentary rock in the bottom of the shallow sea, and ages ago 
was raised into dry land. The black Genessee shale, which 
during a very long period formed the surface over the 
greater part of this region, was soft, composed mainly of 
sand and alumina cemented together by iron sulphide, and 
thoroughly saturated by bitumens. These bitumens doubt- 
less owe their presence in the shale to the slow decomposi- 
tion of a vast number of marine plants and animals which 
were deposited with the sand and iron sulphide in the old 
Devonian sea. 

“Once so deposited, organisms did not decay, as do ani- 
mals on land, since by the waters above and the mud and 
ooze about them they were shut off from the free oxygen 
of the air, which is the principal agent in decay. They 
underwent instead a process of slow decomposition, the 
products or residue of which are known as bitumens. These 
bitumens, in turn, saturated the surrounding sediment and 
gave it its distinctive black color, which on exposure to the 
air becomes a light gray or drab color.’ BLatcHLEY— 
Indiana Geological Report—189g7. 


The sand, which is merely fine quartz, undoubtedly acted 
as the grinding agent in erosion. As Doctor Newberry so 
graphically puts it, ““With its aid, the glacier became a sort 
of emery wheel.” The weight of a cubic foot of ice is 
about fifty pounds, so that where the ice was a thousand 
feet thick, and weighted with a vast amount of stones, clay, 
etc., the pressure of fifty thousand pounds or more to the 
square foot must have made its grinding action rapid and 
irresistible, 


198 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Some scratches in the hard Niagara limestone show that 
the glacier in the Chicago and Dune region moved mainly 
from northeast to southwest, though striz have been found 
on the outcrops almost east and west, and a few northwest 
to southwest. When the Drainage Canal was in process of 
construction, a certain section, much of which was underlaid 
with rock, was let for excavation. A certain price was to 
be paid for excavating the rock, which was thought to be 
solid. During excavation, the workers were surprised to 
find that the rock was made up of a large mass of rock 
layers that had been bodily transported there by the glaciers. 

Judging from the direction of the glaciers, it may have 
come from Stony Island. The force of nature, whether 
applied slowly or suddenly, that elevated this ridge, with its 
covering of Devonian shales and other strata, must have 
folded it over or lifted it up at this point and the mighty 
glaciers may have found it a comparatively easy matter to 
sweep away much of this elevated rocky inland, carry it 
along and scatter its material along the Valparaiso Moraine. 
As this was done by the Second Glacier, the mass may have 
been loosened by the First Great Glacier. If the rocky 
layers found in this section are of the same nature as those 
of Stony Island it would appear to prove that it had been 
moved from there to this spot. 

After this gradual disappearance of the Great Ice Sheet 
from the United States and lower Canada, followed by a 
long period of warmer temperature with Arctic vegetation, 
such as cedars, sphagnous moss, etc., glacial conditions again 
arose in Northern Canada, though apparently not so severe 
as in the great one. The moraines left by this second great 
invasion are deposited in concentric loops in which were 


GEOGRAPHY 199 


formed the Great Lakes, and also along the northern part of 
the United States. These connected loops of glacial ice, 
as they gradually melted, deposited moraines of drift that 
mark the final southern boundaries of the Second Ice Sheet. 

The branch of this glacial sheet that covered the Chicago 
Dune region was called the Michigan Lobe, as it followed 
the course of Lake Michigan, excavating in the solid rock, 
making it longer, wider and deeper. The glaciers did not 
do all of the excavating of Lake Michigan and the Great 
Lakes, as these were undoubtedly depressions and water- 
ways many ages before the glacial period; but they were 
probably used as routes of travel by the glaciers, as they 
were low and offered less resistance, and so became enlarged 
by the grinding of the gravel and sand. This Michigan 
Lobe left a great mass of drift moraine, called the Val- 
paraiso Moraine, around Lake Michigan, some distance 
from the present lake shore. 

In the words of Doctor Chamberlain, “It may be likened 
in a general manner to an immense U embracing Lake 
Michigan between arms. ‘This gigantic loop is over two 
hundred miles in length and from ninety to one hundred 
and fifty miles in width. The parallelism of this moraine 
to the lake shore is one of the most striking features.” 

This parallelism is partly the case with the southern shore 
of the other Great Lakes. This moraine extends from Green 
Bay, where it connects with the Green Bay Moraine to the 
west, then goes southward around Lake Michigan and 
Northern Indiana, trending northeastward through part of 
Indiana and Michigan, where it connects with the Lake 
Huron Moraine. This belt of drift is located from the lake 
shore to twenty-five miles from the lake. 


200 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


The mean altitude of Lake Michigan is 581.28 feet above 
mean tide at New York, and is generally estimated at 582 
feet above sea level. The hills of the Valparaiso Moraine 
or Ridge in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan range from one 
hundred to three hundred feet above Lake Michigan. They 
are much higher than those in Wisconsin, where the Valpa- 
raiso Moraine is generally spoken of as the County Ridge, 
some of the hills being from four hundred to seven hundred 
feet above the lake level, especially Mount Prospect, at 
Dundee, Fond du Lac County, which is over fifteen hundred 
feet above sea level. Forest Lake, near Campbellsport, is 
about twelve hundred feet above sea level, and is surrounded 
by high hills. 

Among the Illinois altitudes of places on the Valparaiso 
Moraine, are Riverside, 618 feet above sea level; LaGrange, 
657 feet; Glencoe, 676 feet; Lake Forest, 705 feet; Bar- 
rington, 832 feet, and Summit, 888. Indiana cities have 
the following altitudes: Hammond, 598 feet; Highland, 
617 feet; Hobart, 622 feet; Hessville, 623 feet; Miller, 625 
feet; Dyer, 638 feet; Porter, 668 feet; Chesterton, 670 
feet; Furnessville, 670 feet; Kouts, 678 feet; Crown Point, 
714 feet, and Valparaiso, 820 feet. All of this clay deposit 
forming the Valparaiso Moraine, and the sand beaches and 
sand-dunes covering the clay, were deposited upon the solid 
rock, scraped clean by the glaciers. 

The Chicago Drainage Canal is cut through this moraine 
and the banks of clay on its sides are the drift deposits of 
the Michigan Lobe of the Second Great Glacier. As the 
glacier melted, it gradually disappeared in a northeasterly 
direction, toward its center at Labrador, leaving these de- 
posits of drift to enrich the soil, preparing it for the needs 


GEOGRAPHY ZOI 


of the coming race, as it contains all the elements needed for 
rich plant growth. As Doctor Blatchley expresses it: 


“These vast deposits of drift around Lake Michigan 
formed a natural barrier for the water that accumulated 
between the Valparaiso Moraine and the receding glacier, 
and formed a lake. The lowest point of this moraine hap- 
pened to be to the southwestward, near the present city of 
Chicago. At this point, a channel was eroded through the 
encircling moraine belt, and for a long period of many 
centuries, the waters of the glacial lake found their way to 
the DesPlaines River, and thence by the way of the Illinois 
to the Mississippi River. To this channel has been given the 
name Chicago Outlet and the lake which formed it is known 
in geological literature as Lake Chicago.” 


Lake Chicago, at the time of the greatest expansion, was 
much larger than the present Lake Michigan. It extended 
from ten to twenty miles on either side to the Valparaiso 
Moraine. 

The waters from Lake Chicago had their outlet via two 
routes, the Chicago-Desplaines Route, and the Calumet- 
Sag Route, uniting at the west end of Mount Desert Island, 
one hundred and forty feet high, to form a large Desplaines 
River, that carried the waters of glacial Lake Chicago to 
the Illinois, which was then wider than the Mississippi 
River. The limestone cliffs on the sides of the valley are 
from forty to sixty feet high and offer fine views of the 
surrounding country. 

The maps of the Chicago Outlet show the different stages 
of Lake Chicago history. There are several distinct stages 
in the history of Lake Chicago. During the first, or Glen- 
wood stage, its waters seem to have stood about sixty feet 


202 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


above the level of the present Lake Michigan. All this time 
Glenwood Beach was forming on the shores of Lake Chi- 
cago, being deposited by waves and currents against the foot 
of the old Valparaiso Moraine, which constituted the shore 
line of Lake Chicago, exactly as is being done now by Lake 
Michigan in the Dune country, and was, in fact, the Lake 
Chicago Duneland of long ago. 

For some reason, probably a great recession of the ice 
dam to the north of Lake Chicago, accompanied by a lower- 
ing of elevation far to the northeast, and the cutting of an 
outlet in that direction, the waters of Lake Chicago ceased 
to flow through the Chicago Outlet. According to Doctor 
Blatchley, they withdrew wholly from the area which they 
covered and part of the present Lake Michigan is supposed 
to have been dry land. 

The excessive weight of the ice sheet in Canada must 
have exerted an enormous pressure on the crust of the earth 
and had some influence in reducing the elevation of the 
earth in that region. It is thought by some geologists that 
the subsidence at the northeastward was so marked that 
a large part of the St. Lawrence Basin was lowered below 
sea level, so that the ocean covered it, and that marine 
animals, such as the whale, sea-fish and mollusks inhabited 
those waters. 

Doctors Salisbury and Alden think that the upper Great 
Lakes were so lowered that they were covered by the ocean. 
Some of the plants found in the Dunes and on the beaches, 
such as the Beach Plum, Beach Pea, Sea Rocket, Seaside 
Spurge, Arrow Grass and possibly the Seaside Crowfoot, 
generally found in the vicinity of salt water, are thought 


GEOGRAPHY ; 203 


to be survivors of the salt-water period. As these plants 
are found in a wide area, it does not necessarily speak 
of a marine occupation during the Calumet stage. 

But there have been salty springs in the Chicago and 
Calumet regions. Salt Creek, which empties into the Calu- 
met River near the old Corduroy Bridge at the foot of 
Chicago Road at Culver’s Point, opposite Dune Park, was 
probably so called on account of salty springs near there, 
though old settlers assert that a wagon with a load of salt 
was upset there. Winnemuc Swamp, between Auburn 
Park and South Chicago, had a salty crust in dry seasons. 
Mr. Green, of Tremont, states that when he was a boy, he 
often visited a salty pool of water about fifty feet across, 
situated in Hamilton’s low swampy woods, near Portchester 
Road, north of the South Shore Electric Line, near the 
Dunes. 

This pool was called Deer Lick, because it was a favorite 
place in early days for deer, who came there to lick the salt 
found around the shore. The water was, in some places, 
one to two feet deep, and came from a salty spring. A 
large bosky oak tree, near the shore, had slats nailed on it 
for the hunters to climb up into its branches and watch 
for the deer. 

During the long period when the waters of Lake Michigan 
used this outlet to the northeast, lowering its level to forty 
feet above the present Lake Michigan, a change occurred, 
caused either by the advance southward of the glaciers, or 
an elevation of the land to the north, or from both. This 
caused the waters of Lake Chicago to flow again southward 
through the Chicago Outlet into the Illinois. A new beach 


204 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


was formed called the Calumet Beach, because it lies close 
to the Calumet River, and south of it for much of its 
course. 

Salisbury and Alden speak of marine life that is found at 
the farm of Mr. J. H. Welch, near Chicago Lawn, situated 
on the broad sand and gravel ridge of the Calumet Beach, 
thrown up at the period when Lake Chicago was about 
forty feet higher and larger than Lake Michigan. In Mr. 
Welch’s field have been found numerous shells and one 
specimen of coral. An examination of these specimens 
showed them without exception to be of marine species, 
whose present range is between Prince Edward Island, 
Canada, and the West Indies. 

They seem to have been deposited there by marine waters. 
The southern range of all of these species would preclude 
their introduction from the north or the northeast. The 
shells found by Doctors Bell and Ells in Canada, are all 
of Arctic species, while the Chicago Lawn shells are of 
West Indian species. Similar shells have been dug up at 
New Buffalo, Michigan. 

If these shells are evidence of an incursion of the sea, 
their occurrence, as far as known being on the Calumet 
Beach only, would indicate this stage, or part of it, as the 
time of incursion. The southern range at the present day 
of all these species would indicate that the incursion was not 
from the northeast through the St. Lawrence, but from 
the south, through a Mississippi inlet. 

The Calumet Beach is distinguished very clearly in 
Indiana, as the Calumet River winds along for miles at the 
foot of it. It seems to unite with the Glenwood Beach, 
near Ross and continues so almost to Tremont, there sepa- 


GEOGRAPHY 208 


rating from the Glenwood Beach until it again joins it at 
Michigan City. 

The Calumet Beach extends from Chicago Lawn south- 
east to Blue Island Ridge, and passes through Washington 
Heights to the Calumet River, then northeast through Lans- 
ing and Highland and joins the Glenwood east of Ross 
to Crissman. These sand-ridges appear again east of Dune 
Park on the north side of the Calumet River, which worked 
its way through the Calumet Beach at the old long Bridge 
at Culver’s Point; the Glenwood and the Calumet Beaches 
unite here. 

Glenwood Beach trends to the east at Furnessville and 
then northeast, and has the Michigan Central Railroad 
located upon it. Calumet Beach is a half-mile north of it, 
and has the old Detroit and Chicago Road and also the 
South Shore Electric located ‘upon it there. It is about 
fifteen to twenty-five feet above the surrounding plan. Most 
of Michigan City is located on Calumet Beach. 

A fine view of Calumet Ridge is from the bridge over 
Little Calumet River to South Gary, from which point 
Calumet Beach can be seen for miles. At its foot is the 
Calumet Marsh, through which the Little Calumet meanders 
on its sluggish way to Blue Island. There it is obliged to 
make a turn to the north, owing to the Calumet Ridge, 
and to the east of it follows the lowest level, which happens 
~ to be north of Tolleston Beach. 

This Calumet Beach stage of Lake Chicago must have 
lasted for a long period, as shown by the great beach 
deposited by it. It was followed by a lowering of the lake 
to about twenty feet above the present level of Lake Michi- 
gan and may have been caused by ‘the reopening of the 


206 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


northward outlet. During this period, a third beach called 
the Tolleston Beach, was thrown up along the shores of 
Lake Chicago, and is so named from the Village of Tolles- 
ton, Indiana, that is situated upon it. 

This beach has been traced north of Milwaukee along 
the eastern coast of Wisconsin, in places, but has been 
wiped out by the lake from Milwaukee to Kenosha. From 
Kenosha to Waukegan it is prominent, and is followed by 
the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. It reappears at 
Evanston, and goes through Rose Hill Cemetery to Lincoln 
Park. It swings to the southwest, and curves to the north- 
east past Auburn Park, South Englewood and Burnside. 

It reappears at Michigan Avenue and Ninety-ninth Street 
and continues along Michigan Avenue, through Rose- 
land and Kensington to One Hundred Twenty-seventh 
Street, or [lini Trail, where it curves to the southeast, and 
crossing the Calumet River, passes easterly through River- 
dale and Dolton, entering Indiana south of Hammond. It 
was often called the Holland Ridge after the old town of 
Roseland that was settled in 1849 at Michigan Avenue and 
One Hundred Eleventh Street by the Hollanders, and ex- 
tended north to Ninety-ninth Street. 

Going eastward it passes through Hessville, Tolleston, 
Gary and Miller in a line between the Little and Grand 
Calumet Rivers. East of Miller it curves slightly to the 
northward and in Porter County is about a mile from the 
lake shore, and is partly covered with dunes. 

West of Gary a series of low ridges appear which lie 
parallel to Tolleston Beach and cover the territory between 
it and the lake. They rise but five to twenty feet above 
the level of Lake Michigan and are five to twenty rods 


GEOGRAPHY 207 


in width, with narrow swamps between, most of which 
become dry in summer. Leverett has counted thirty-two 
of them on a line running north from Hessville. The writer 
has counted nearly as many north from Clark and Pine. 
This peculiarly intricate arrangement of hills, ridges, 
sloughs and swamps, covered with pines and other under- 
growth, was formed after the waters had ceased to flow 
through the Chicago Outlet, and was, therefore, thrown up 
by the waters of Lake Michigan rather than Lake Chicago. 

West of Hobart, Indiana, included in the territory 
covered by the old Lake Chicago, is a high ridge, Hobart 
Island. This is about four miles long and one mile wide. 
This was undoubtedly an island at that time, being composed 
of glacial drift, and is considerably higher than the sur- 
rounding country. It is about two miles south of South 
Gary, and is cut through by Gary’s principal street, Broad- 
way, which is there reduced to a good country road. 

The glacial drift of the Valparaiso Moraine in Wiscon- 
sin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, is composed of clay, 
sand, pebbles and boulders, in come cases stratified ; in others 
mixed together. Among these stones, which are also found 
in the Beaches and the Dunes, are many specimens of 
quartz in various colors of white, black, yellow, red, purple 
and pink; also specimens of flint, jasper, chalcedony and 
opal. Occasionally pieces of petrified wood are found, some 
dull, ranging from whitish to black; others, of various 
colors, bright and lustrous, showing the entire structure of 
the original wood, which has gradually disappeared and 
been replaced by tiny particles of silica or sand. 

Pieces of Huron conglomerate have been found that 
have been brought down from the original outcrop near 


208 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Lake Huron. This conglomerate is composed of white 
quartz, in which are embedded small pieces of bluish-red 
or purple jasper, from the size of an acorn to a walnut, and 
looks like a piece of rice pudding with big raisins in it. 
Mr. Ossian Guthrie, of Chicago, had one unusually fine 
specimen, found in Illinois. 

The rarest, most beautiful, and most valuable mineral 
found in the Valparaiso Moraine is the diamond; not that 
pretty crystal called the Alaska diamond, but the genuine 
diamond. The government report on the Mineral Resources 
on the United States, based on the National Census of Ig910, 
states that three hundred diamonds had been, up to that 

time, found in Wisconsin alone, the most valuable one being 
sold for twenty-six hundred dollars. 

The Chicago Academy of Sciences in its Bulletin of the 
Minerals of the Chicago Area, calls attention to the fact 
that the diamond is found in the Chicago region; the nearest 
one being found at Kohlsville, Wisconsin. They have been 
found in Minnesota also, and a number have been found in 
Canada. The Canadian government has instructed its 
Geologic Survey to give careful attention to finding the 
mother lode, some extinct volcano, of these diamonds, 
which were brought from Canada by the glaciers and scat- 
tered along the road. They may be found anywhere along 
the line from Canada, through Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana 
and Michigan. 

A few years ago a man created great excitement in 
Montreal by declaring he had found this mother lode, and 
had brought along about two thousand fine stones to prove 
it. They were tested by jewelers of Montreal and found 


GEOGRAPHY 209 


to be quartz crystals of unusually fine water, but not gen- 
uine diamonds. 

The American “King Solomon’s Mines” have not yet 
been discovered, though the one in Arkansas, said by Tiffany 
to be genuine, is furnishing some diamonds. The extinct 
volcano in Kentucky, which much resembles Kimberly, may 
be something better than a mere likeness, when fully de- 
veloped. 


GCHAR TE RW VL) 
PLANTS 


ONE of the most striking features of the Dune re- 
gion is its flora, due to the diversified nature of the 
region. The wealth of plant life found here, unlike any- 
thing found in other dune regions, which are generally 
almost devoid of vegetation, attracts botanists and nature 
lovers from all over the world. The whole country was 
amazed several years ago when Doctor Henry C. Cowles, 
of the University of Chicago, told the Chicago reporters 
at the Convention of the International Association of 
Botanists, that scientists from Europe declared that the 
Dunes of Lake Michigan, owing to their beauty and geo- 
logic and botanic interest, were among the wonders of 
America, being outclassed only by the Grand Canyon of the 
Colorado, Yellowstone Park and the Yosemite Valley. 

Doctor Henry C. Cowles has made an exhaustive study 
of the flora of the Chicago Dune region, extending from 
Waukegan to Michigan City, and his book, The Plant 
Societies of Chicago and Vicinity, is extremely interesting 
and instructive. It is in the form of a bulletin issued by 
the Chicago Geographical Society and is well illustrated. 
Doctor Coulter, in his book, Plant Relations, finds the 
Dunes especially fitted for the study of plant structures and 
variations. 

210 


PLANTS ; 211 


Another book, issued in 1891 by the Chicago Academy of 
Sciences, and now out of print, is called The Flora of 
Cook County, Illinois, and Part of Lake County, Indiana. 
It was edited by Doctor William K. Higley and Charles 
Raddin, assisted by several local botanists, including the 
author. A revised list of the flora of the Chicago Dune 
region from Waukegan to Michigan City is being prepared 
by Doctor Herman Pepoon, of the Lake View High School, 
Chicago, and president of the Chicago Nature Club. 

The most majestic of all plants found in the Dunes is 
the giant White Pine. Some are found on the high sandy 
dunes and others at their bases; in the wooded glens or at the 
foot of the dunes, bordering the swamps. The original 
trees covering the dunes were pines. Mr. James L. Mona- 
han, the Father of the Dunes, who settled at Rolling Prairie, 
near Michigan City, in 1835, and has lived in that region 
since that time, states that when he came here the dunes 
along Lake Michigan were almost entirely covered with 
white pine, which was the strongly dominant tree. In 
places where a pine had fallen it was generally replaced by 
an oak, which seems to follow the pine. Close observers 
declare that birds, especially the crow, bring acorns into 
the pine regions. These lie dormant, buried in the shadow 
of the pines, until a tree falls, giving sufficient sunlight for 
the oak to thrive. 

Doctor E. J. Hill, who assisted Doctor Higley in the 
preparation of The Flora of Cook County and the Dunes, 
states that the region around Pine, north of Clarke, had 
the greatest variety of rare flowers found in the Chicago 
Dune region. In our work together, we discovered plants 
new to the Dune flora and one, a thistle, new to science; 


212 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


it was named Cunicus hillit, for Doctor Hill. It is now called 
Carduus hill. Most of these have disappeared through the 
incoming of industrial plants and railroads, but enough are 
left to show what the original flora must have been. 

The fields for the botanist and nature lover lie more to 
the east; at Miller, Liverpool, Long Lake, Dune Park, 
Mineral Springs, Tremont, Furnessville and Tamarack. 
Thousands of people visit the places, and many pluck the 
beautiful and rare flowers that grow on the hills or in 
the swamps. This aids in the destruction of the flora, 
many flowers being pulled up by the roots. This is bad 
enough; but it makes a nature lover indignant beyond meas- 
ure to see whole armfuls of beautiful flowers thrown away, 
to wither by the wayside. It is not harmful for a person 
to take a flower for study, or to draw, if it is a strange one; 
but to gather them by the armful is a crime, and should be 
punished severely. They look far more beautiful in their 
natural environment. 

Miller has recently been annexed to Gary, and a public 
tract of one hundred and thirty-two acres, including the 
closed mouth of the Calumet River, is being made into 
a public park. This is a wise and public-spirited move 
to conserve part of this beautiful spot and furnish a health- 
giving playground to the public. 

The northern slopes of the dune ridges seem to have 
thicker vegetation than the southern, owing to more shade 
and moisture. 

While the advancing dune covers one forest, as can be 
seen all along the southern part of the Dunes, other dead 
ones are uncovered, as the advancing sand sweeps onward. 
Such a resurrected forest can be seen at Furnessville Blow- 


PLANTS 213 


out, which is often called “the Graveyard.”’ At Polk Slide, 
a half-mile east of Furnessville Blowout, a cluster of about 
fifteen fine white pines is enclosed by the advancing sand in a 
triangular field, and it is a question of only a few years 
when these pines, through which the old Detroit and Michi- 
gan Stage Road pursued its winding way, will be over- 
whelmed by the resistless advancing dunes. 

The glens and glades between the ridges are filled with 
rich vegetation. Here the oaks flourish, mainly the White 
and the Black Oak. The white oak is of great size and 
beauty, some with trunks nearly three feet in diameter, and 
with spreading, umbrageous crowns. A kingly tree. 

The Pin Oak is also found here, with its finely dissected 
leaves. Its wood is so straight and free from knots that 
for centuries it has been used as pins instead of iron nails. 

Other fine trees found in these valleys are the Tulip 
Tree, Beech and Poplar. Some of these great tulip trees 
are nearly one hundred feet high and over two feet thick. 

The Beech is found sparingly throughout the Dunes, 
except in the Tremont region, where there are a number. 
The ridge on which Farmer F. Johnson’s and Hauber’s 
houses are situated at Tremont was called Beech Ridge 
by the old pioneers, on account of the many fine beeches 
to be found upon it. It extended from Portchester Road to 
near Michigan City. This tree has from primeval times been 
considered immune from lightning, though it is occasionally 
struck. It is sometimes called the Lightning Tree because 
some trees with their crooked, whitish branches resemble 
lightning flashes. 

Most of the glens and valleys are comparatively narrow 
and surrounded by steep dunes, and where thus protected 


214 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


from the northern blasts, are regular hotbeds of luxuriant 
vegetation, such as pines, oaks, junipers, bearberries, service 
berries, red dogwood, willows, sand cherries, sassafras, or 
ague tree. 

The White or American Elm is found here in large 
numbers, and is exceedingly beautiful with its tall trunk 
and curving crown. Of the Maples, the most beautiful are 
the Hard or Sugar Maple, and the Silver Maple. The 
hard maple prefers the glacial till, with its clay loam. The 
early settlers utilized a large tract of sugar maple which 
they called the Sugar Bush, situated between Long Lake 
and Lake Michigan, near Miller. 

The Hickory is sparingly found in the Dunes, and is 
generally the Shell or Shag-Bark Hickory. The Shell-Bark 
Hickory is more frequently found on glacial moraines, with 
their admixture of clay, sand and other materials, and is 
closely associated with the oaks, just as the maples and 
beeches are generally found together. These latter trees, 
according to Cowles, are the ultimate forest type and will 
eventually become the leading type around Chicago, as they 
can grow in a relatively light oak forest, whereas the oak 
can not thrive in the denser shade of the maple or beech. 
Oak forests have been seen with a pronounced undergrowth 
of beech. This was undoubtedly the case at Beech Ridge, 
Tremont, and has been observed also in Wisconsin and 
other states. 

The Birch family is typically represented by the Paper 
or Canoe Birch, used by the Indians for canoes. Its outer 
bark is white and the inner bark can be taken off in sheets. 
This is not true of the ordinary White Birch, of which only 
a few are found. [ew trees are as attractive as the paper 


PEANTS 21 


qn 


birch, whose bark is used for many purposes; not only 
for canoes, but also for various utensils, ornamental articles, 
and correspondence. A postal on white birch bark from 
campers in the Great North Woods is considered “quite the 
thing.” 

The sweet Cherry Birch, of fragrant memory, with its 
tall slender form and delicate branches, reddish brown 
glistening color, and the aromatic bark and young twigs, is 
occasionally found in the Dune district by the visitors. 

The Sycamore, with its queer bark, breaking off into great 
scales, leaving whitish green blotches, and large angled 
leaves and button-ball seed-pods, is also found rather spar- 
ingly in the Dunes, and near streams where there is alluvial 
soil. They have been seen here in the early days as large 
as three or four feet in diameter and one hundred feet in 
height. The sycamore grows to be the largest deciduous 
shade-tree in America. At a contest recently given by the 
American Genetic Association, a sycamore, located at 
Worthington, Indiana, won the prize, being one hundred 
fifty feet tall, and forty-two feet and three inches in cir- 
cumference, or twelve feet ‘five and one-half inches in 
diameter. Of course, it is not so large as the great ever- 
green trees of California, that range from three hundred 
to nearly four hundred feet high, and from thirty to forty 
feet in diameter. The sycamore is now being planted in 
cities, as experience has shown that this specie may be able 
to withstand the smoke, dust and gases that soon poison our 
trees, though Jens Jensen says they can not stand city life. 

The shrubs and vines that flourish in the lower dunes 
and glades are very interesting. A shrub that attracts 
attention is the Witch Hazel. This is not a hazel, but 


216 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


has leaves something like one. This plant has aroused the 
interest and wonder of mankind for many reasons, owing 
to its flowering in late autumn,. and closing up for 
the winter, ripening the seeds the next summer and then 
shooting them out for some distance, as from a pop-gun. 
_ The four yellow linear petals look like threads of gold, and 
their blooming when there is frost excites wonderment, 
and has given rise to many pretty stories of the fairies and 
their liking for this plant. They are very plentiful through- 
out this region. Some people call them ‘Monkey Faces” 
as their peculiar seed-pods resemble a face. They have 
also a dim resemblance to a witch’s face, with small pro- 
truding features, and a cowl, or hood, causing them to be 
still more witch-like. 

The Dogwoods form one of our finest families of showy 
vegetation. The most attractive of all is the Flowering 
Dogwood, with its flower-like bud scales, from two to four 
inches across, which separate into four white leaves. One 
most beautiful tree, thirty feet tall, with trunk over five 
inches in diameter at the base, was seen this spring. The 
entire crown was covered with a mass of flowers and leaf 
buds, like an immense bouquet. 

The Dwarf Cornel grows about a half-foot high, with a 
pretty little flower, resembling that of the flowering dog- 
wood. The other species of dogwood found there brighten 
the landscape and are useful in holding the sand in place. 
Especially is this true of the Red-Osier Dogwood, which is 
present in great numbers. It is considered one of the choic- 
est plants for group planting, spreading by prostrate or 
subterranean running shoots. It is also found along run- 
ning streams, and plant-bordered lakes and marshes. 


PLANTS 217 


The ordinary Wild Plum is found in various places, 
especially on the banks of the streams. The fruit is red 
and delicious, furnishing a refreshing dessert to the hiker, 
as well as an additional fount of preserves to the thrifty 
housewife. It was one of the richest blessings to the pioneer 
woinen, coming next to the Crab-apple. 

The Wild Crab-Apple is found everywhere, especially in 
damp glades and along the river-banks and borders of 
swamps, where it is able to secure humus and moisture. 
This is a fragrant little tree when it blossoms, and generally 
grows in clusters. The trees present a charming picture, 
with their fragrant white peals, stained with pink. Their 
fruit makes a delicious jelly. 

A most beautiful tree in fall is the Pepperidge, or Sour 
Gum. It is a medium-sized to large tree, with limbs that 
come out at right angles, often drooping at the end. It 
has rough, dark-gray bark, and dark-green oval leaves. 
Hundreds of these can be seen near the foot-hills, bordering 
the swamps along the Lake Shore Electric, between Gary 
and Michigan City, on both sides of the tracks. As soon 
as frost comes, the pepperidge changes color before any 
of the other large trees, and turns scarlet, resembling a 
living flame. One tree may show all tints from green to 
bright scarlet, all changing to a vivid scarlet and crimson. 

Another interesting tree is the Papaw, a small, straggling 
sapling. This bears a fruit like a small banana, with sweet 
insipid taste, which exhales an odor similar to a banana, but 
more Overpowering. 

The Willows are interesting to study. They are abun- 
dant on the lake shore, in the Dune country, where their 
stout growth, deep roots, and tough nature help them to 


218 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


thrive and hold the sands in position, much as the sand- 
cherries do. Some of these willows are about a foot high, 
while others, around the swamp, are much larger. There 
are many kinds. | 

There is a great variety of shrubs and vines in the glens, 
glades and forest trending away from the lake toward the 
south. The Sassafras, that grows from eighty to one hun- 
dred feet in height down south, with a diameter of from two 
to four feet, is here about the size of a sapling, and is an 
attractive little tree, with queer lobed leaves, brownish-green 
trunk, and bright green branches. Two in Fort Creek 
Valley are forty feet high, with trunks nearly eight inches 
thick at the base. 

Many different kinds of rose bushes gladden the sight. 
Here can be seen the Early Wild Rose, the earliest of 
roses, and the Small Wild Rose, found in moister places 
than the other. These roses are common, often growing 
in great clumps in different parts of the Dunes. 

The Chokeberry is a small bush that is found near the 
borders of swamps, and is often associated with Blueberries 
and Huckleberries, which are found in the Dunes in great 
quantities. The chokeberry is like a large black huckle- 
berry, and is often gathered by the tenderfoot, who con- 
siders the clusters of “giant huckleberries’’ a wonderful 
find; but a woeful disappointment greets him when he 
attempts to eat them. ‘The chokeberry hangs in tassels, 
and is very puckery, even more so than the huckleberry. 

The Poison Ivy, and its more poisonous relative, the 
Poison Sumach, are the Ishmaelites of the vegetable king- 
dom, always ready to strike. Their sap is poisonous, as 
it contains a very irritant acid, called Toxicodendric Acid, 





THe BeautTiruL CowLes TAMARACK SWAMP 





‘ 
° 


PLANTS 219 


which raises a severe blister on whatever part of the flesh 
it touches. The more delicate the skin, the easier it is 
affected. 

Probably the simplest cure of poison ivy or poison 
sumach is Grindelia robusta or Gum Plant. It is almost a 
specific. A solution of this plant in proportion of one part 
of the solution, Grindelia robusta, to four parts of water, 
proved to be of the greatest value in curing and drying up 
the inflammation caused by the intensely blistering and 
irritating effect of the toxicodendric acid found in the 
poison ivy, Rhus Toxicodendron, or Poison Tree, as the 
name indicates. The name is now Rhus Radicans. 

This toxicodendric acid is found in the poison sumach, 
also called Swamp Sumach, Rhus Vernix, or Varnish 
Sumach, but it seems to be in a more concentrated form 
than in the poison ivy as it is more virulent than the latter. 
People who seem to be immune to poison ivy have been 
affected by poison sumach, which, however, has been also 
cured by Grindelia robusta. The poison sumach is often 
called Poison Dogwood. 

The best manner in which to apply the Grindelia robusta 
is to bathe the affected part with the solution of one to 
four as prepared by the druggist, which will allay the intol- 
erable itching, and wrap a thin bandage of cotton batting 
around the affected parts. This can be kept moist with the 
solution. If it is not convenient to do this, the bandage may 
be moistened or changed at morning, noon and night. 

The poison ivy is found in three forms, due to location 
and conditions: the low crawling form, the slender shrub 
and the climbing form, which is often taken for the Virginia 
Creeper or Woodbine, a cousin of the Boston Ivy. 


2z0 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


The poison ivy in its crawling form sends out its roots 
horizontally in every direction, close to the surface. Shoots 
are sent up about every foot. These shoots, from six to 
ten inches high, divide into stalks with a compound leaf of 
three leaflets looking much like young box-elder leaves, 
squarish in shape toward the middle of the leaf, and slightly 
downy underneath. The flowers are borne in a plume or 
panicle of very small greenish-white flowers borne in the 
axils of the leaf. They have a bunch of whitish-gray dry 
berries that hang on the low stem all winter, and are much 
liked by the birds. 

These forms of poison ivy are still found at Wildwood, 
Chicago, on the Calumet River, though not so abundantly 
as twenty years ago. In a number of cases, the poison ivy 
vines were over two inches in diameter, and rose to the tops 
of the oak trees. Some of the branches given off by the 
poison ivy were from four to five feet long, almost hori- 
zontal, and one inch in diameter at the base. They were 
greenish from the oak sap, which they absorbed, resembling 
the branches of the black oak upon which they were grow- 
ing. The leaves were the typical three leaflets of the poison 
ivy, but very large, some being from six to ten inches long. 
This habit of growth in the oak tree has given the ivy 
growing in this manner the name of Poison Oak. 

The poison ivy leaves turn to a brilliant scarlet in the 
fall. Fall is also a dangerous time, though not as much 
so as in the summer, as the sap is not so much in evidence. 
People pluck the beautiful leaves and berries, and many 
cases of ivy poisoning occur in fall. Beware of these beau- 
tiful leaves and whitish, dry berries! Poison! 

The poison ivy grows high among the branches; so does 


PLANTS 221 


the Virginia creeper; but, while the poison ivy climbs by 
little rootlets, the creeper generally uses tendrils that grasp 
twigs and bark and wind about them, and also uses flat 
disks or suckers that hold on to the tree. These tendrils 
and suckers often give way. That is the reason that the 
Virginia creeper often hangs for a long distance without 
support from the trunk of the trees, being anchored from 
tendril or branch fastened firmly above. The poison ivy 
is anchored fast to the tree by its myriads of rootlets, 
which in an old vine completely cover the main stems, even 
overlapping one another; a mass of pinkish rootlets when 
alive, but in dead vines black and fuzzy. 

The Virginia Creeper or Woodbine, has a digitate leaf, 
with five narrow, wavy, sharp-pointed leaflets. The flower 
cluster is a flat cluster of small greenish-white flowers. The 
fruit is a cluster of black berries, the size of. small peas, 
that look like very small grapes, to which they are related. 

The Poison Sumach is a shrub growing from ten to 
thirty feet high, found in swamps or on banks of low creeks 
and rivers. Like most of the sumachs, it has from seven 
to thirteen pinnate leaflets, that are entire and not serrate or 
cut along the edges like the Staghorn Sumach. This shrub, 
like the poison ivy, has a panicle, or plume, of greenish- 
white minute flowers, that hang from the axil of the leaves, 
and are succeeded by a large bunch of grayish-white small 
dry berries. The pollen is in one plant and the seeds in 
another plant. 

Some of these poison sumach shrubs have an immense 
number of these bunches of whitish berries on them. The 
swamps of the Dune country are full of them. This shrub 
has smooth branches, and looks much like the staghorn 


222 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


sumach, with which it must not be confounded. The stag-- 
horn has flowers like a spear at the top of a branch, this 
spear becoming red in the fall. 

The Black Sumach is small and has a spear of seeds, 
like the staghorn. It has entire leaves and is harmless. The 
stems have wings between the leaflets. 

If people would learn to recognize poison ivy and poison 
sumach, much suffering would be avoided. 

The Hop Tree ranges from a shrub to a small tree 
twenty-five feet high. Its leaves, which are curiously veined, 
are compound, of three dark-green sessile leaflets. Its 
flowers are in clusters, green and minute. Its fruit is flat 
and circular winged, like large elm seeds, being one inch 
across. It is an odd-looking bush, used for planting in 
grounds, and is very showy. 

The Wild Grape covers trees and banks. It is very com- 
mon and yields incredible quantites of tart grapes, which are 
ideal for jellies. 

The Bittersweet, a twining vine, has clusters of orange 
berries, enclosing seeds covered with a fleshy scarlet pulp, 
which fills the seed-pod. The orange-colored pod bursts 
open and shows the brilliant scarlet pulp. It will remain 
in this condition for months. This plant is very common 
in certain parts of the Dunes, and colors the landscape. It 
is the most striking vine in the Dunes in fall. 


CHAPTER XVIII 
FLOWERS OF THE DUNES 


THE flowers of the Dunes are marvelous. As this region 
was the meeting-place of the nations going to the North 
and the South, the East and the West, so it has been the 
meeting-place of the plants from all sections of the country. 
The Bearberry, Reindeer Moss, Northern Willow and 
Trailing Arbutus from the North meet the Tulip Tree, 
Sassafras, Coffee-tree and Papaw from the South; the 
Beach Plum, Beach Pea, Saltwort and Sea-Crowfoot from 
the East, greet the Cactus and other plants from the West. 

The different flowers and plants, with their many colors 
and shapes lend beauty and enchantment to the Dunes. 
Winter has not departed before the sturdy, odoriferous 
Skunk Cabbage begins to wake, and pokes the tip of its 
purplish blanket through the ice and snow that cover it. 
It is generally seen around Washington’s Birthday, some- 
times before, and keeps on arriving until the middle of 
April. The great leaves begin to expand in April and in 
summer they are so large that it deserves the popular name 
given to it, swamp cabbage. 

Instead of having the two sets of floral envelopes that 
are called the calyx and corolla, it has but one. This 
is like that of its cousins, the Calla and Jack-in-the-Pulpit 

223 


224 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


—a heavy, blanket-like covering called a spathe—which is 
wrapped closely around it and gives it protection from both 
cold and injury. An added protection to the skunk cab- 
bage is the fetid odor, which serves a double purpose; the 
one, for increased warmth, the odoriferous particles being 
pungent and in rapid motion; the other, to attract insects 
by the carrion smell, thereby fertilizing the flowers more 
fully. After the plant thrusts its pointed flower through the 
snow or ice it so warms up the surrounding space that a 
clear spot is often left around the plant, such as is left 
around a tree in the snow when the sap begins working. 
Soon the plants appear. 

“The Pussy Willows break into bloom, some yellow, some 
reddish, in graceful catkins, and the bark is filled with 
profuse, starchy sap. The pollen from the stamen-tassels is 
either wafted by the wind, or carried by insects to the 
little seed tassels, which they fertilize. The white birches 
hang out their golden tassels, whose pollen ripens the small 
cones or catkins that are on another part of the same plant, 
like the alders, oak, walnut, and beech. 

Soon the other flowers begin to spring up and follow the 
skunk cabbage, willow and poplar. The sheltered dells, 
glens and glades burst into life and bloom; the borders of 
the swamps and banks of the creeks and lakes are alive with 
growing vegetation, soon to be crowned with flowers, some 
of which are exceedingly rare. 

The Hepatica blooms here in April, generally before the 
violet, covering the dunes in certain places as with a carpet. 
It is found on the lower dunes, the glades and the slides 
of the great dunes. When in bloom these plants brighten 
the landscape with pinkish-white blossoms of fine sepals 


FLOWERS OF THE DUNES 225 


and low, silky three-lobed leaves that give them the name 
of Liver-Leaf. 

The dainty Anemone, or Windflower, that has a single 
flower of five pretty pinkish-white sepals, and the delicate 
Rue-Anemone, with its flowers of from five to ten white 
or pinkish sepals, with several blossoms on each little plant, 
add a charm to the landscape. 

One of the very earliest flowers, sometimes even earlier 
than the hepatica, is the violet. It is found in many varieties 
and beautiful in all. The most gorgeous one is the Bird- 
foot Violet, called by the country children the Pansy Violet. 
It prefers a sandy soil, and is common to the whole Chicago 
and Dune region. It reaches perfection in the Dunes, where 
thousands can be seen on one hill, or in many glades. The 
Conservatory, as Captain Charles Robinson calls it, located 
near Waverly Beach, Indiana, is on a side-hill trending 
to the southeast, and sometimes shows many of these flowers 
in bloom, making a rare and enchanting sight. 

The earliest, as a rule, is the modest Arrow-Leaf Violet, 
which generally blooms in April, and sometimes in a very 
warm marsh, That is followed by the common Blue Violet, 
which is larger both in plant and flower; sometimes becom- 
ing white-flowered. It sometimes blooms as early as the 
Arrow-Leaf Violet. 

That curious flower, the Jack-in-the-Pulpit, is found in 
moist ground in rich soil in April, both in woods and 
shaded swamps, throughout the whole Chicago Dune area 
and Calumet Rivers. It does not grow in the pure sand, 
but needs silt for its development, and is found at the Dunes 
in the near-by ground. The Dragon-tail Indian Turnip, is 
very odd and striking, its spathe being in the shape of a 


226 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


very long bright-yellow tube, from three to six inches long.. 
It is not so common as the Jack-in-the-Pulpit. 

The Jack-in-the-Pulpit is a relative of the skunk cab- 
bage, and, like it, is wrapped in a colored blanket to keep 
it warm; it is also warmed by the very pungent sap that 
is found in its bulbous root. This plant is also called the 
Indian Turnip, as it is surrounded with a gaudy, purple-and- 
green covering like an Indian blanket. Its roots, like a small 
turnip, are also eaten by the Indians after the intensely 
pungent juice has been removed by drying or washing. 
It is one of the tests of bravery by the country boys to dare 
one another, and especially a city tenderfoot, to eat an 
Indian turnip. It is not poisonous; but oh! so hot! It is 
undoubtedly a custom derived from the sports of Indian 
boys years ago. 

In the Dunes, toward the eastern part, can be found that 
exceedingly rare and historic flower, the Trailing Arbutus; 
that charming flower that so cheered the Pilgrims at Ply- 
mouth, who called it the Mayflower, as it bloomed in that 
month, and resembled the blossom called Mayflower in 
England. It is a low, crawling evergreen vine, covered with 
reddish hair on the stem, with thick shiny leaves ranging 
in size from one to one and a half inches, and in shape 
from almost round to heart-shape. The flowers are rose- 
colored or almost white; spicy fragrant blooms, in small 
clusters, which are greatly esteemed. 

Something must be done to protect the arbutus. Every 
state should put it on a protected list. In the spring of 
1918 a woman was seen with a large bouquet of them. 
She had tramped all around the Dunes to find them and 
instead of glorying in their dainty beauty, had picked all 


FLOWERS OF THE DUNES 227 


she could find. There are but a few of those rare plants 
left, and they should be carefully cherished. 

In the hilly and wooded Dune region, near Liverpool, 
just southeast of Gary, along Deep River, is a region that 
should be full of bird life, but in which few are to be found. 
The silence in that land of great hills, woods and marshes 
was profound and startling, until Mr. Arthur Patterson, 
the game warden of East Gary, was appointed. He has 
lived in that vicinity for nearly fifty years, and is well 
acquainted with all kinds of wild life. He said that 
for years the foreigners of Gary, a few miles away, had 
come to this beautiful region, full of rare plant, bird and 
animal life, and had killed nearly everything that walked, 
flew or swam, but, he added, with a flash in his eye, ‘‘Not 
any more.”’ 

Another spring flower that is found here is the little 
Spring Beauty. This has a bulbous root, linear leaves and 
and white flowers, veined with deep pink. It is one of the 
earliest, coming out in April and is found everywhere in 
moist soil. 

The Dutchman’s Breeches, or Wild Bleeding Heart, with 
lace-like leaves and delicate spray of quaint white flowers, 
spread out like miniature wide bloomers, is one of the 
prettiest of spring flowers and blooms in April and May. 
It is sometimes tinged with pink and a few specimens have 
been found with pale blue flowers. 

The Phloxes or Sweet Williams, form another family, 
chief of which are the Blue or Wood Phlox, the Pink 
Phlox, and the Sand Phlox. The wood phlox has large 
bluish-lilac flowers, and when seen in the low woods by 
the thousands transforms the rough muddy woods into a 


228 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


veritable flower garden. It blossoms in May and June. 
Its cousin, the Pink Prairie Phlox, is very abundant in 
the prairies, and sometimes covers them for blocks at a 
stretch. It is loved and admired by the children who call it 
the Wild Sweet William. It also grows in open woods. 

Of the orchids found in the United States, the most 
beautiful is the Showy Lady’s Slipper. It is a large plant 
with a leafy stem from one to three feet high, and the 
flower is large and fragrant. The inflated flower-lip re- 
sembles a small pink and crimson egg, and is about one 
and one-half inches long. The other petals and sepals are 
greenish-white with brownish streaks. It blooms in June 
and July. 

The other lady’s-slippers are the Large Yellow, the Small 
Yellow, the Small White, and the Pink, or Moccasin Flower. 

The Fringed Orchids have flowers, with strongly cut 
petals, arranged in spikes or racemes. The principal ones 
found in our region are the large Yellow Fringed Orchids, 
and the Ragged Fringed Orchids. 

In addition to these larger orchids, there are some exqui- 
site small ones found in bogs and marshes. The Calopogon, 
or Grass Pink is a very dainty pink flower; it flowers in 
a loose raceme of five to ten flowers at the top of a scape. 
The lip of this orchid is at the top. The plant has one 
long grass-like leaf, and blossoms in June and July. 

The Arethusa or Indian Pink has a single flower at the 
head of the scape. Both sepals and plants are alike, and 
are colored a deep pink. The lip hangs down, and is covered 
with three to five yellow-and-white-crests, with wavy 
spotted margin. The flower is larger and thicker than the 
grass pink, and blooms in May and June. 


FLOWERS OF THE DUNES 229 


The Pogonia, or Snake Mouth, is a delicate little pink 
orchid, and is quite fragrant. The stem has one flower at 
its top, with petals and sepals much alike, with crested lip 
hanging down. A single leaf is midway on the flower 
stem, and a very small leaf like a bract is just under the 
flower. 

The Lady’s Tress, with its twisted white flowers and 
flower stalk is odd-looking, and is found from July to 
September. It attracts a great deal of attention. 

One of the most common and most beautiful flowers 
found in the Dune region in June and July is the Spider- 
wort, a cousin of the lily. It grows on a long, jointed, 
grass-like stem, in large clumps, and has bluish or lilac 
flowers at the top. The rounded stems are soft and full of 
very sticky sap, like mucilage. 

It has three colored petals, three sepals, six stamens and 
a three-celled pistil, or seed-pod. The flowers are so fragile 
that they wither a short time after the sun is strong in the 
heavens. They are called Widow’s Tears in some parts 
of New Jersey and New York, as they. dry up so soon. 
They sometimes have four petals, and the author, in 1875, 
took a four-petaled spiderwort from Pine, now part of Gary, 
and cultivated it until 1887. It developed in a most re- 
markable manner, producing flowers with two, three, four, 
five, six, seven and eight petals, on the one plant. 

This is wonderful, but the most wonderful part is the 
regular adaptation to type. All of these flowers had the 
same number of sepals as petals, double the number of 
stamens, and the same number of cells in the ovary or 
seed-pod. For instance, the seven-petaled flower had seven 
petals, seven sepals, fourteen stamens and a seven-celled 


230 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


ovary. The seeds were fertile, and produced plants with 
flowers as diverse as their parents. The best plants and 
seeds were sent to Doctor Asa Gray, but died out. The 
others were accidentally destroyed. These plants were seen 
and examined by many people. 

About June 28, 1922, the author found a similar case 
at Tremont, in the Dunes. It was a spiderwort with five 
petals, five sepals, ten stamens and a five-celled ovary or 
seed-pod. A splendid specimen. The writer plucked the 
flower and studied it very carefully. The place was marked, 
and some weeks later it was again visited so as to dig up 
the plant for replanting and cultivating, but it had dis- 
appeared, and the soil also. These two are the only cases 
on record. Found only in the Dunes. 

While I had cultivated the first ones carefully, using 
much fertilizer, this one of 1922 had begun to “sport” in 
almost clear sand. Why? Saw a four-petaled one also, not 
perfect. 

The Pea Family, or Butterfly Flowers, are in great 
variety in Duneland. They are called butterfly flowers, 
because some of them have large colored petals, with wide 
shield, that look like the wings of a butterfly. Some of 
them are like the Partridge Pea, or American Sensitive 
Plant, which has flowers almost regular, like a small yellow 
rose. All of them have pods enclosing the seeds. 

The Lupine is the most common early flower in the 
Dunes, with its great masses of plants, sometimes covering 
acres. The flowers are purplish-blue, sometimes with white 
tips, and very rarely entirely white. In favorite glades, they 
may be seen by the thousands, with their spikes of bright 


FLOWERS OF THE DUNES 2a 


flowers about a foot high, looking like clusters of blue 
sweet-peas. It is the chief flower of the Dunes. 

A striking Duneland flower is the Prickly-Pear-Cactus, 
which is a genuine desert plant, growing best in pure sand. 
To insure life, it is so built that the stem is very thick, with 
hard bark or rind, and combines both stem and leaf. ‘This 
conserves moisture. For protection the cacti are orna- 
mented with spines, from tiny ones on the smaller plants, 
to large fish-hooks four inches long, or straight ones five 
_to six inches long on other kinds, that grow in deserts. 
The prickly-pear-cactus has a number of spines an inch or 
so long, and a large number of minute ones, even on the 
seed-pods. Beware of them! Burbank has bred a spineless 
cactus. This is a great help, but the cactus is not perfect 
yet. 

These flowers are two to three inches across; are sulphur 
color, with a reddish center. Sometimes there will be from 
ten to twenty flowers on the plant, and then it is a veritable 
floral treasure-house, with the light yellow flowers and 
collection of curious, flat, green leaves, of all kinds and 
shapes, and different shades of green. 

As the close, tough cuticle of the cactus checks evapora- 
tion, much of the water brought up by the very deep roots 
is stored up in the thick stem or leaves. Numerous lives 
have been saved in the deserts where the tall tree-cactus 
grows, as thirsty travelers succeeded in obtaining water 
from the base of the trees by piercing them near the soil, 
releasing the water held by the cactus stems. This practice 
was told them by the Indians, who have used it for 
ages. 


232 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Another very remarkable family of plants is the Com- 
posite, or Compound Flowers. While the orchids are noted 
as examples of the beauty, as well as the bizarre in plant 
life, the compound flowers are noted as examples of effi- 
ciency. All flowers are more or less efficient in their primal 
object of production of-seeds; and in some cases, especially 
with the orchids, this is achieved in very ingenious ways 
that are worth studying. The Composit, in addition to 
this, have developed wonderful efficiency in packing flow- 
ers, etc., into a small space. All of those compound 
flowers are crowded into a head that seems to be but one 
flower, but is really a whole bouquet of flowers; in some 
cases containing over two hundred little flowers or florets. 

Among the leading compound plants are the Bonesets, 
sacred to the pioneer housewife as a febrifuge, or fever 
killer. Who that has lived in the country, during the past 
generation, does not remember the virtues as well as the 
bitter taste of boneset tea! Of all the brews used by the 
pioneer mother, these two plants stand preeminent in her 
materia medica, boneset and sassafras, with wild cherry 
and poplar bark, etc., to aid. 

While the White Boneset, Eupatorium perfoliatum, is the 
one generally used, the Purple Boneset—Joe-Pye-Weed— 
Eupatorium. purpureum, seems to have been the favorite 
fever remedy of the Six Nations of New York. Joe Pye 
was chief of the Senecas, of the Iroquois Confederation, 
and he taught its value to the white people in early Colonial 
days. This name was given to it in remembrance of his 
kindness. The Joe-Pye-Weed with its purple stem, and 
flowers from nearly every joint, grows over ten feet high 
in the Dunes. 


FLOWERS OF THE DUNES 233 


Another family is the Blazing Star, with its different 
kinds almost covering the prairies and sandy fields, and 
fairly lighting up the landscape in many places with its 
large heads and spikes of crimson and rose flowers of 
various styles and patterns. 

Of all the large families of plants, none seems more 
cheery than the Goldenrod, with its golden flowers, bright 
in color and varied in form. They are found everywhere 
and are particularly fine in the Dune region. One species 
is called Silverrod, as it has white or cream-colored 
flowers. Some of these goldenrods are very large. The 
prettiest and daintiest of them all is the Canada Goldenrod, 
as the flower cluster is large and plume-like, and the leaves 
thin, slender and graceful. 

The Aster is undoubtedly the prettiest of the large fami- 
lies of the Compositz, and is found in the Dunes in great 
variety. They bloom from August to September. Among 
these are the striking New England Aster, with large purple 
flowers, and the Smooth Aster with violet-blue flowers, in 
terminal clusters. These are highly variable, highly orna- 
mental and easily cultivated. 

The Panicled Aster is a tall plant, growing up to eight 
feet high, and has very many light violet asters; many are 
even white. It is a striking plant, and is extensively culti- 
vated. 

The Sunflower Family is one of the gaudiest in the coun- 
try during the early fall, from August to October. There 
are many species fairly covering the prairies and lowlands 
of this region with their myriad numbers that adorn and 
cheer the landscape. They are called sunflowers because, 
with their shining golden petals they resemble the sun. The 


234. THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


old idea that they face the sun during the day is a fallacy, 
though they do turn with the sun somewhat, but not as 
much as some people seem to believe. The large sunflowers 
are called ‘“‘prairie fuel’ on the plains, as they grow so big 
they help take the place of wood. 

The Rose Marshmallow has a large flower two to four 
inches across, with protruding pistil and stamens. When 
there is a large patch of them, with their many large, pink 
blossoms, it presents a most attractive sight. They are 
cousins of the Hollyhocks. It is worthy of home cultiva- 
tion. A very large tract was formerly situated at Waverly 
Beach Bridge. 

The Impatiens, or Jewel Weed, the Wild Touch-Me-Not, 
both the Pale and the Spotted, is found throughout the re- 
gion. It is also called the Bugle Flower, as it is shaped 
much like one. The Garden Balsam is the tropical form 
of this flower. When the seeds are ripe, the seed-pods 
shrink, the parts give way, and a little mechanism inside 
shoots the seeds out to drop into some other place to 
grow. Watch them shoot. If you touch them when real 
ripe, away they go! Hence the name. The plant blooms 
from July to September. 

The Shooting Star, or American Cowslip, often called 
Prairie Pointer by the children, has a flower stem rising 
from a circle of root leaves. It is crowned with a cluster 
of rose-pink flowers, with long golden stamens projecting 
to a point with the petals reflexed, making it look like a 
floral arrow, or shooting star from the heavens. 

Among the Heath family, besides the trailing arbutus, 
wintergreen, bearberry, huckleberry, etc., are such ever- 
green plants as the Spotted Wintergreen, Prine’s Pine, 


FLOWERS OF THE DUNES 235 


Shin-leaf, Indian Pipe, etc. The spotted wintergreen is a 
plant found in rich woods. The stalk is from three to nine 
inches high. It has several white flowers on top of a long 
peduncle, in July and August. 

Its cousin, the Pipsissewa, or Prince’s Pine, is found near 
the last. It has two whorls of six-pointed leaves each 
around the stems, like a miniature pine, and flowers like the 
above. The Pyrola, or Shin-leaf, is another evergreen plant 
with a clump of netted veined root leaves, and sends up a 
scape, one species with several waxy flowers, another with 
only one. 

The Gentians are well represented in the whole Chicago 
region, and especially well in the Dunes. The Rose Pink 
is rose-pink with a yellowish star in the center. It is a 
cousin of the gentian, and is a credit to the family. 

Of the true gentians, the most popular is the Fringed 
Gentian, which is famous the world over for its exquisite 
beauty. The flowers are solitary, on long slender stems ter- 
minating the stem or simple branches. The corolla is about 
two inches long, violet-blue, vase form, with four blue petals 
cut into long delicate fringes, which give it its name. 

In this flower, the stamens mature before the stigmas 
are developed, so that it is incapable of fertilizing itself; 
and the bumblebee with its long tongue, who visits many 
other fringed gentians, carries pollen with him that is de- 
posited on any stigma that is ripe. The fringed gentian 
opens its flowers only on bright days, closing at night or in 
cloudy weather. They are found sparingly in many parts 
of the Dunes, as well as in the whole Chicago region. They 
bloom in the fall. Other gentians found there are interest- 
ing, the Closed Gentians especially, as the corolla is closed 


236 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


so tight that the ordinary insect can not open it. The bum- 
blebee, with its superior size and weight is the only insect 
that is able to open the closed gentian to get the nectar at 
its base and incidentally to fertilize it. 

There are many plants that have acquired a habit of 
depending to a greater or less degree upon some one else to 
feed them. They are slackers, such as we find in our social 
life, and as the cowbird is in bird life. Some plants take 
part of the sap from other plants as well as working for 
themselves. These are real parasites, as owing to the 
chlorophyl, or green matter in their leaves, they are able to 
change this acquired sap into starchy foods, that are used in 
building up the plant. 

Some live on decaying vegetation of the dead roots of 
trees and thus receive nourishment from these plants, in- 
stead of working for a living for themselves. The most 
striking case of this parasitism is that of the Indian Pipe. 
This is a weird, ghostly, waxen little plant, with a soft stem 
and a flower that hangs down, resembling a small white 
pipe. The Indian Pipe has completely degenerated, and is 
' the slacker par excellence, as it has no green coloring matter, 
or chlorophyl, which has the power of transforming sap 
into food, but it absorbs food prepared for it by its host. 
It is found rather sparingly throughout the district, though 
more common in rich woods. It straightens up when ripen- 
ing, becoming perfectly straight. It is a true saprophyte, 
living on dead vegetable matter. 

The Love-vine or Dodder is also found throughout the 
Dune region, and is likewise a parasite. This dodder is a 
most interesting plant. It is a leafless annual vine, yel- 
lowish or reddish in color, bearing a few scales in place of 


FLOWERS OF THE DUNES 23 


N 


leaves. The seeds develop in the ground like other seeds; 
but, as soon as the plant reaches the bark of certain herbs 
or shrubs, such as goldenrod, sunflower, etc., it fastens to 
it, and begins to suck the sap from it through minute 
papilla or spongy growth. Their own roots shrivel, as 
they are not needed, and they get full nourishment from 
their hosts. 

Some plants that generally earn their own living will rob 
the roots of other plants. The Gerardia, or Downy Fox- 
glove, does that. Others, like the Mistletoe or the little 
Comandra, fasten themselves on the branches or roots of a 
plant, tap the sap fountain and then do the rest of the work 
themselves by using the chlorophyll in their leaves to trans- 
form this stolen sap into living food. 

If a plant fastens itself upon a living plant, it is a genuine 
parasite; but if that plant dies, and a plant utilizes the de- 
caying wood, this plant is a saprophyte, or plant that lives 
on decaying vegetable matter alone. 

Some of the most remarkable members of the vegetable 
kingdom to be found in the Dunes are the carnivorous 
plants ; those that seem to need flesh or protein to keep them 
in good condition. 

The most widely known of these carnivorous plants is 
the Pitcher Plant. The various conservatories in the public 
parks of our large cities have different species of these 
rare plants, but Garfield Park Conservatory, Chicago, has 
one of the most beautiful and varied collections of all. The 
pitcher plant of the Dune region is the Sarracenia purpurea, 
which blooms from May to July. The leaves are hollow, 
about six to eight inches high, sometimes fifty in a cluster, 
all radiating from a common center, like a rosette. From 


238 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


the center arises a strong stem over a foot high with a 
curious flower at the top. This flower is deep purple and 
the petals are fiddle-shaped. The top of the stigma is ex- 
panded like an umbrella. The leaves have a hood and a 
sort of wing and are mottled green with purplish veins. 

The plant exudes a little nectar at the lip, which attracts 
insects, who climb up to the opening under the hood. The 
throat of the plant is exceedingly glossy and slippery and 
the insect slips down to the bottom, sliding over the many 
stiff, sharp, small bristles that point downward. When the 
insect tries to climb upward he is repelled by those bristles, 
as well as the very glossy surface. After a while the insect 
drowns in the liquid that is generally found in one of these 
hollow leaves, or is killed by the digestive juice that acts 
directly upon it. In either case, the insect is killed and 
digested by the plant. It is a very interesting sight to 
examine some of these leaves, where insects in all stages of 
decomposition can be seen, with worms of various species 
feeding on the remains. One has a scythe-like tail, to cut 
his way out. 

Another interesting carnivorous resident of the Dunes is 
the Sundew. The round leaves are covered with hairy 
glands, that exude drops of a clear, very sticky liquid, that 
looks like dew. Insects think it is dew, and crawl or fly 
to it, and get caught. The hairs of the leaf slowly fold 
about it and the leaf digests it. It is very interesting to 
watch this operation under a microscope or a powerful 
reading-glass. The plant really seems to have sentient feel- 
ing. The leaves form a cluster from which a flower stalk 
arises to a height of six to nine inches. The flowers are 


FLOWERS OF THE DUNES 230 


small, white, and are found on the top of the branched, 
reddish slender stem, which is curved. 

There is another plant, the Bladderwort, found not only 
in the Dunes but in the whole Chicago region, that is 
partly carnivorous. ‘This is an aquatic or marsh plant, of 
different species, most of which grow in the water; floating, 
branching, and bladder-bearing to keep it from sinking. 
Some grow in the wet sand. The flowers are deeply two- 
lipped and spurred underneath, the calyr being also two- 
lipped. All but one of these floating water plants are yellow. 
The exception is purple. The leaves of the bladderworts are 
finely cut, generally into fine threads, many bearing air 
bladders. Those that float in the water have queer-looking 
flowers, finely dissected leaves, and little air bladders that 
keep them up. 

It has been found that these air bladders on the leaves are 
not perfectly air tight, but that there is an opening that can 
be forced open. This is especially so with the large bladder- 
wort, which has stems from one to three feet long and 
numerous bladders on the leaves; the flowers are five to ten 
in a raceme, large, and with short spurs. 

Recent investigators have found that these bladders catch 
minute insects and even minute fish, which are digested in 
them. A number of different species of bladderwort are 
found at the Dunes, and the author has examined a number 
of the bladders, finding both minute insects and young fish, 
as seen under a microscope. These bladders may have power 
to expand and contract the openings so as to facilitate the 
entrance of the intruders and keep them in. 

Many ferns are frequently found in the bogs around 


240 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Miller, Cowles Tamarack Swamp, Tremont. Different 
varieties of the Asplenium, or Moonwort, are found in 
different sections. The Lady-Fern is found in moist rich 
woods and is uncommon. The Aspidium, or Marsh-Shield 
Fern, is common throughout the Dunes in low grounds and 
marshes. The Christmas Fern, a species of Aspidium, is 
evergreen and is rarely found here, but some fine specimens 
were found in the deep shaded ravines in the Springland 
Park, belonging to Mr. Martin T. Krueger, near Michi- 
gan City. The Sensitive Fern is one of the common forms, 
found especially in marsh grass. 

The different species of Osmunda, or Flowering Fern, 
are abundant throughout the Dune region, as well as the 
Forest Preserve. The Royal Fern prefers the moist rich 
woods and swamps where it attracts attention by its regal 
bearing. The Cinnamon Fern is in all its glory in swamps 
and low places, and is especially common near the lake 
shore and the southwestern part of this region. 

These flowering ferns come up by thousands, covering 
the grounds. They are covered with a great deal of vege- 
table wool which gives them protection from the cold and 
wet. With their curious form, as their top is rolled into 
a ball which gradually unfolds, they bear a striking re- 
semblance to a fiddle head, which causes the country boys 
to speak of them as “‘fiddle heads.” 

The Sphagnum, or Peat Moss, is found here in such great 
numbers in the bogs that it is gradually helping to absorb 
the water so as to dry these low regions. Much of our 
coal is derived from the inconceivably vast amount of 
Sphagum Moss that grew in the primeval tropical or warm 
swamps in ancient times, when the world was young, as 


FLOWERS OF THE DUNES 241 


well as from the vast number of tropical shrubs and trees 
that flourished in the Carboniferous Age. 

The heat and pressure from so many elevations and de- 
pressions have changed the peat, and much of it has gone 
through the various stages of moss, peat, lignite or brown 
coal, bituminous or soft coal, and gradually burning out the 
sulphur and other impurities, has passed into anthracite, or 
hard coal, glossy black and almost pure carbon. Some 
swamps here are rich in peat which, when dried, makes a 
first-class fuel. One factory at South Chicago has been 
producing peat briquettes for several years. 

Blatchley says that no real coal has been found in either 
Lake or Porter County. Dark slaty masses that would 
burn, he says, were pieces of shale saturated with bitumens ; 
and these did burn for a short time. In Illinois, coal mines 
containing fine specimens of plants are found farther north 
than in Indiana. 


CHAPTER XIX 
ANIMALS 


THIs region, in prehistoric times, was the abode of many 
large animals, among which were the Saber-toothed Tiger 
with tusks from six to eight inches in length; the Ohio 
Beaver as large as a bear; the Tapir; the Mammoth and the 
Mastodon, which were much larger than the present ele- 
phant. The Mastodon is supposed to have existed here 
during the glacial period. Doctor Cope thinks that the 
Great American Lion, part of whose skeleton was found in 
the Mississippi, may have ranged to this region. 

Remains of the Saber-toothed Tiger and the Tapir, ac- 
cording to Doctors Leidy and Cope, who made a critical 
study of the ancient fauna of Indiana, have been found in 
caves in Indiana and Ohio. Mr. George A. Baker found 
an almost perfect skeleton of the Ohio Beaver, as large as 
a bear, in the ancient marshy ground near South Bend, 
many feet below the present upper glacial drift, in the 
ancient swampy forest that grew in the soil left by the First 
Great Glacier. This remarkable skeleton is now in the Cen- 
tral Park Museum, New York. There is now in the mu- 
seum at South Bend a large head, with some teeth, of 
another Ohio beaver. Another tooth is about five inches 
long and nearly an inch wide, making a remarkable cutting 
instrument. 

242 


ANIMALS 243 


The Mastodon was an immense elephant that flourished 
in this region, as it found food and conditions here to which 
it was adapted. The forests of various kinds of trees and 
shrubs, many of a semi-tropical nature; the gigantic ferns, 
and all kinds of southern marsh plants, made this an ideal 
region for it. A number of skeletons, or bones, of this 
great animal have been found in the Chicago Dune region, 
as well as in different parts of Indiana and Illinois. They 
were undoubtedly caught in the mire of the great swamps, 
and suffocated by sinking in the mud. The Mammoth was 
also found here. 

The following interesting description of the Ohio River 
region by Professors Cope and Wortman applies to Lake 
Michigan and Lake Erie regions, also, as bones of some of 
these animals have been found there. The Big Bone Lick, 
of Kentucky, had many bones of these ancient animals. 


“We trust that we may be pardoned if we indulge the 
imagination, and endeavor to picture to the mind a land- 
scape containing a grouping of the more prominent animals 
as they doubtless appeared on the banks of the beautiful 
Ohio in the misty twilight of long ago. Huge Mam- 
moths and Mastodons would have been seen loitering near 
the water’s edge, or lazily browsing on the neighboring 
trees; herds of Horses, giant Bisons and Elk grazed upon 
the adjoining hills, while numerous smaller species of graz- 
ing animals would be seen in their appropriate places; the 
Tapir, Peccary, and Peccary-like Giant Hog, would have 
been found in the dense growths of the swamps and 
marshes; the mighty Sloths and the Ohio Beaver would also 
contribute to the scene; while, lurking in the background, 
the stealthy Lion, and wary Wolf waited to pounce upon 
their unfortunate victims. Whether this scene was ever 


244 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


beheld with human eyes, is a matter which yet lingers in 
the shadows of uncertainty, but it 1s probable that man 
was there.” 


The Saber-toothed Tiger was also a resident of this re- 
gion. The Bison and the Elks were much larger than those 
of to-day. 

The Buffalo, or Bison, was frequently found in this re- 
gion by explorers and traders many years ago. Marquette 
speaks of buffalo in this neighborhood, and a section of 
Southern Michigan was called Parc Aux Vaches, Park of 
the Cattle or Buffalo, near Bertrand. Bones of the wild 
cattle, or buffalo, are found there in great numbers. The 
Indian name of our Fox River was Buffalo River, on ac- 
count of the very great number of buffalo found there. La 
Salle described this place. The buffalo, like the passenger 
pigeon, has practically been exterminated through lust for 
gold. It has been killed for food, as well as from pure 
blood lust and finally on an enormous scale for commercial 
purposes. 

Hunters have given accounts of great herds of buffaloes, 
numbering millions and covering the prairies for miles. 
The southern herds emigrated from Texas to Canada and 
back; the great northern herds from Canada to Dakota and 
back. Hornaday, in his American Natural History, gives 
a clear description of this. Their numbers appeared count- 
less, but with constant inroads upon them they have grad- 
ually disappeared, until the American bison or buffalo, as 
a wild American animal, has become almost extinct, a few 
hundred being left in Central Canada. Here they have 
learned that the forests are safer than the prairies, and are 


ANIMALS 245 


called by the local hunters, Wood Buffalo. They do not 
seem, according to many hunters who have shot the plains 
buffalo, to be as large as the original prairie one. Probably 
their food is not so succulent, as they have little or none 
of the rich buffalo grass. The wood buffaloes are now con- 
sidered a subspecies, the Athabascan Buffalo. 

There are a number of fine herds of buffaloes in different 
parks throughout the country, notably those at the Zoologi- 
cal Park, New York, and Lincoln Park, Chicago. A number 
of ranchers have established small herds, some of which 
have increased rapidly. A notice in the Chicago Daily News 
of December 18, 1919, is not only interesting, but gratify- 
ing as well, for it shows that this animal is being saved 
from extermination, and bids fair to become a valuable 
article of food. On Buck Leonard’s ranch, Pierre, South 
Dakota, are over a thousand buffaloes, ranging over ten 
thousand acres. 

Leonard’s herds are permitted to run wild, finding their 
living as they did in the days before the white man took 
possession of the plains. At killing time horsemen are sent 
out to the buffalo run with rifles, and the animals are shot 
down as they were in the time of Buffalo Bill. 

A report from Yellowstone Park says that a new herd 
of wild buffaloes numbering twenty-five head was discovered 
early in July, 1920, in an almost inaccessible part of the 
park. This brings the buffalo herd in Yellowstone Park 
up to one hundred head. 

The herd of buffaloes maintained at Wainwright, Alberta, 
by the Canadian government numbers now over three thou- 
sand six hundred, and the government is offering the 
superfluous animals for sale at two hundred fifty dollars 


246 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


a head. The Canadian government has agreed to furnish 
a number of buffaloes, bear, moose, elk, and other animals 
to the Forest Preserve Commissioners of Cook County, Ilhi- 
nois, for McCormick Park, to be established near Riverside. 
They will present a pair of every wild animal in Canada 
to the commissioners, if desired. This Zoological Park will 
be one of the finest in the world, and will contain several 
hundred acres when completed. It has now over three 
hundred acres. 

The largest wild animal to be found in the Dune region 
in recent years is the Black Bear. In early days it was very 
common, and one of the pet viands of the hunters was bear 
meat. They lived in the dense woods that covered the hills 
and ridges in the Chicago Dune region, and the Valparaiso 
Moraine district in Indiana and Illinois. 

Mr. James Monahan, of Michigan City, Indiana, who 
settled in that region, at Rolling Prairie, in 1835, states 
that in the early days, there were many black bears in that 
neighborhood and that the pioneers when tired of venison 
would go out into the woods and bring in a bear. 

The last bear seen in the Dune region was in 1871, fol- 
lowing the Chicago fire. The great woods at Minnesota, 
Wisconsin and Michigan were on fire and hundreds of 
people and thousands of animals were burned to death in 
that terrible fire. The whole eastern shore of Lake 
Michigan was on fire, and the animals were driven south- 
ward by the devouring flames, some of them getting in to 
the Dunes and woods of Indiana. This bear was undoubt- 
edly one of those driven down by the Michigan fire, and 
appeared in the Dunes, where it was seen in the woods 
west of Waverly Beach, near what is now called Juniper 


100g IVLSAYD AH, 





* 





ANIMALS 247 


Valley, which is noted for the great number of wild animals 
killed there. 

The Panther or Puma was common in the Dune region in 
olden times and there were still some left in the days of the 
early pioneers. The Dune region, with its great sand-ridges 
covered with pine sand oaks, dense tropical glens, great 
marshes, numerous deer and other animals that served as 
prey, was an ideal place for the panthers. 

Mr. Monahan, of Michigan City, and Mr. John Morgan, 
of Chesterton, who both came to the Dune region in the 
‘thirties, spoke of large numbers of panthers in the Dunes, 
the beaches and the woods of the Valparaiso Moraine. 
Early travelers also spoke of them. 

Some writers on Natural History scoff at the courage ot 
the panther, or mountain lion, saying that a man with a 
club could whip any panther and that the stories told by 
the old pioneers of the panther’s ferocity were imaginary. 
The writer, whose relatives for generations as pioneers, ex- 
plorers and sportsmen, have had many battles with these 
treacherous beasts and have fought them from Plymouth 
Rock to California, can not accept this. They knew that 
the panther while generally cowardly was sometimes very 
daring and ferocious. The Indians have always considered 
the panther an uncanny and temperamental beast, and the 
embodiment of curiosity. 

The magazine rifle has put fear into the hearts of the 
mountain lions and caused them to shun man. Mr. Alfred 
KE. Parker, Director of the Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, who 
is considered a great authority on the cat tribe, and has 
hunted them all over the world, says that the puma or 
panther is not aggressive but when cornered is sometimes a 


248 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


fierce defensive fighter. He also asserts that the largest and 
fiercest are found in Montana. 

An account, literally true, by the author’s father of an 
attack by a hunger-crazed panther shows a side of the 
panther’s ugliness seldom seen. In 1830-31, the “Winter of 
the Deep Snow,” my father visited an aunt, Mrs. Doll, in 
Delaware County, New York, among the foot-hills of the 
Catskill Mountains. One night a big bear killed a pig near 
the barn. A few nights later a large panther, the first seen in 
the Delaware Valley for twenty years, tried to break through 
the thick oak doors and window shutters that protected this 
Colonial blockhouse, while the aunt and boy with gun 
and ax were ready on the inside to fight for their lives. 
It finally climbed up the lean-to, and from there to the 
chimney and started a number of times to get down the 
great fireplace, but the smoke from damp straw that they 
threw on the fire drove it back. Finally, after a long siege, 
it left, taking a pig with it. The neighbors were aroused 
the next morning and followed its trail for many miles, 
finally shooting the panther in the Catskill Mountains. It 
was a giant, hunger-crazed female, the largest ever seen in 
Delaware County. This story is still told there. 

Gurdon Hubbard, the fur-trader, says that the trappers 
and hunters who worked for him ate panther, lynx and 
wildcat with great enjoyment, but would not eat prairie 
chicken or quail, declaring them unfit for food. This idea, 
amazing to us, who know the pleasure of bagging and eating 
this game, is easily explained as an inherited prejudice. 
The Indians came from the western plains, the “Great 
American Desert,’ whose chief vegetation was cactus and 
sage plants. The spines of the cactus protect it from bird 


ANIMALS 249 


and mammal. The sage plants are eaten by the sage grouse 
and quail, and their flesh becomes too bitter to eat, except 
the “spring chicken.” The Indians, even in this region, un- 
doubtedly attribute this same quality of bitterness to our 
prairie chicken and could not be persuaded it is different. 

The Canadian Lynx, with its mottled grayish fur, tufted 
ears, and enormous paws, was one of the most vicious of 
predatory animals and was seen in this region until recent 
times. The last one seen in the Dunes was killed by Hunter 
Green in 1873 at Tremont on Beach Ridge, near the present 
Johnson house, which at that time was a thickly forested 
section with swampy woods on each side. 

Mr. Harry Eenigenberg states that about the same time, 
while living at Oak Glen, on the old Michigan Road, near 
Lansing, Illinois, on the Indiana border, he was in the habit 
of hunting in the big woods near that place and extending 
his trips toward Thornton and Homewood, and over into 
Indiana. A neighbor, a recently arrived immigrant, went 
out hunting along Thorn Creek near Thornton, when he 
observed a large animal in a tree, and shot it. He then 
picked up the animal, carried it home and asked the neigh- 
bors what it was. To their amazement, it was a large 
Canadian lynx! This animal had not been seen in the town- 
ship for many years; and, as one of the pioneers remarked, 
“To think that this rare animal should miss being shot by 
us old timers, and be left for a greenhorn who had just 
landed!” | 

The Bay Lynx, or Wildcat, with his reddish yellow coat, 
was also found in the early days and was highly respected 
by the early pioneers for his grit. He was certainly some 
scrapper! The greatest praise one of those pioneers could 


250 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


give a man was to say of him, “He can whip his weight in 
wildcats,”’ for they were absolutely devoid of fear and 
would fight as long as they could breathe. 

Of all the animals found in the Chicago Dune region, the 
one most appreciated by the pioneers was the Deer. Because 
of its savory flesh, timid nature, and power of flight, this 
animal has always been the one most prized by the pioneer 
and hunter. Its very name indicates this, as the word deer 
in most languages means the animal. It has been tamed 
and domesticated. The Dune region with its variety of 
trees, shrubs and plants, some sweet, some sour, some spicy 
like the sassafras and spicewood, and ornamented with 
bosky glens and sunny glades, was to the Virginia Deer a 
veritable Paradise, and they were found here by the thou- 
sands, including elk, and in early times, the moose. Their 
paths along the sides of the great sand-hills were utilized by 
the Indians as trails, and can still be seen. 

Mr. J. Monahan states that in the ’thirties, ’forties and 
fifties, deer in that section and along the Dunes toward Chi- 
cago were very common, and that settlers often got tired 
of eating venison and went out to get bear for a change. 

Mr. J. Morgan says that in the ‘forties, “fifties and ’six- 
ties, there were many deer all through the Dunes and along 
the Calumet Ridge, which went all the way to Chicago. 
They were so very thick along the Calumet River and Thorn 
Creek that one large creek flowing into Thorn Creek is 
called Deer Creek. 

Mr. M. F. Green, of Tremont, says that his father and 
grandfather killed many deer in that neighborhood and that 
on Mr. Tlamilton’s farm west of the Portchester Road, 
about half way between the South Shore Electric Line and 


ANIMALS 251 


the Dunes, was the well-known Deer Lick, beloved by the 
deer of the Dunes. 

Mr. Green’s uncle, Hunter Green, who hunted and 
trapped in the Dune region for many years, stated that even 
in the sixties, he had seen as many as twenty deer at a time 
traveling along the deer paths bordering the south side of 
the Dunes. The last one found in the Dunes was shot in 
the early ‘seventies, but escaped, although it was badly 
wounded. This may have been the one whose head, with a 
fine set of horns, was recently unearthed in a gully near 
Barton’s shack at Mineral Springs, near the lake front, as 
it was shot in that neighborhood. 

Mr. Harry Eenigenberg says that in the “fifties and ’six- 
ties deer were very common on their farm near the Indiana 
line, as they had a large patch of heavy woods, and these 
deer became so tame that they would even come into the 
barnyard and the bucks would chase the cows away from 
the hay. He says that one day he tried to chase the deer 
out of the barnyard and the old buck made a jump at him, 
just clearing his head, and chased him around the wagon 
until his father came out with a gun, at which all the deer 
fled. ‘The old Detroit and Michigan City Road ran through 
the farm and the presence of so many deer in this neighbor- 
hood attracted a number of wolves. Deer were also found 
at Hyde Park, Chicago, and along the lake in the present 
Chicago itself, in the early days. 

One of the greatest pests that the pioneer had to contend 
with was the Wolf; not only the ordinary Coyote, or Prairie 
Wolf, but also the great Timber Wolf, as large as a large 
dog and more savage. These wolves were found not only 
in the deep and sheltered woods, but in the glens of the 


252 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Dunes and also throughout the entire Chicago Dune region. 
Ferninand Jones, the Chicago historian, told the author 
that when he was a boy in 1838, he had shot a wolf on 
Dearborn Street near the Tribune entrance and that wolves 
and deer were common at that time only a few miles from 
the Tribune Building. 

They were also common in the neighborhood of Rose- 
land, that section on the ridge west of Pullman along Michi- 
gan Avenue. Many wolves lived in caves or dens in the 
sandy ridges to the southwest near Halsted and One Hun- 
dred Fifteenth Street. So many of them were shot or 
trapped by the hunters there that the place was called Wolf 
Ridge and people sometimes went there and dug out wolves 
and brought home little ones to raise as pets. One man who 
tried to raise an extra fine breed of sheep in that region in 
those early days had nearly every one eaten by wolves. 

Mr. Eenigenberg says that the wolves were very common 
in the big woods at Oak Glen, near the Indiana Dunes. 
When a boy, toward the end of the ’sixties, two big timber 
wolves followed him, trying to attack him, and he was 
forced to climb a big oak for protection. As he did not 
get home, his father went to look for him in the dusk and 
hearing the boy cry for help, rushed toward him and the 
wolves ran off. His father tried to assure him that the 
wolves meant no harm, but the next morning they came into 
the farm-yard and tried to steal some chickens, and were 
very ugly. The father and the boy each got a gun; the boy 
was able to move faster than the father, and succeeded in 
shooting one of the wolves, which jumped high in the air 
when hit. The wolves then vanished. They were not 
troubled any more. 


ANIMALS 253 


The forests and deep glens at the Dunes have been splen- 
did hiding-places for the wolves all these years. It is said 
that there were still a few of them left between Dune Park 
and Michigan City until 1919. Horace Greeley Green, the 
old hunter and trapper, said that in 1914, he trapped two 
big timber wolves in the dense woods some distance east 
of Dune Park near Oak Hill, and was on the trail of a band 
of four wolves which he hoped to capture. About 1873, he 
followed the Indian Trail through the woods along the 
Dunes from Michigan City to City West or Tremont, about 
ten miles, with a pack of timber wolves trailing him on the 
side of the Dunes above him. It was night, but he could 
see their eyes shining. He carried a rifle, revolver, ax and 
big bowie knife. The wolves came very near, but did not 
attack him, though they threatened him repeatedly. He says 
that he had been in a number of dangerous places, especially 
in the Rockies, but had never been so glad to be out of the 
woods as he was when he turned south to the Old Green 
Tavern, near the old Michigan Road. He had shot many 
timber wolves, as well as panthers, grizzlies, black bears, 
etc., in different parts of the country and knew them well, 
and he assured me that the wolves among the Dunes were 
the genuine timber wolves and not the little coyotes or 
prairie wolves. 

In December, 1917, Mr. M. F. Green and I saw some 
large curious tracks in the snow between Polk’s Slide and 
Tamarack which he said were wolf tracks. No wolves have 
been seen since then, but Mr. Morgan, of Chesterton, in 
1918, said he thought there were still a few wolves left in 
the Dunes. Now there seem to be none. 

Mr. Horace G. Green said that he had seen a number of 


254. THE WONDERS) OF THE DUNES 


Badgers in the Dunes. They are very strong, powerful 
animals that burrow during the day and come out in the 
evening. He discovered them by falling into one of the 
badger holes and seeing the animal. Here is an opportunity 
for some of our athletes to see if they can find a badger and 
dig him out; his muscles are very strong, and he can dig 
like a whirlwind. 

The author saw a badger near the Furnessville Blowout 
in November, 1918, on a day that was really a red letter 
day, so many interesting things were seen; a large flock of 
quail; a cardinal bird, a rabbit, a very large gray squirrel, 
a flock of wild geese just coming up squawking from the 
lake at Polk’s Slide, flying so low they just skipped the 
trees, until they got into line; then the badger under the 
great pines at Furnessville Blowout. 

While strolling slowly along the beautiful Pine Tree 
Trail, the attention of the author was attracted by a quite 
large animal crossing the trail about fifty feet ahead. It 
was coming from the swamp and heading for the Dunes. 
Its walk was a curious gliding, waddling walk, different 
from that of a woodchuck. The animal was nearly two feet 
long, with a strong body, very short powerful legs, and 
sharp pointed head, with white stripes. It was covered with 
reddish-brown hair, with blackish and gray-tinge, on the 
back and sides, but with very short hair on the under side. 
It was quite broad, and flat, looked queer. 

It was a genuine badger, and presented a good view for 
some distance, as it glided to its burrow in the sand. A 
visit to the Lincoln Park Zoo the following week to see the 
badgers showed them to be exactly the same as the one 
studied at the big pines. The under fur is brown, with 


ANIMALS 255 


long gray hairs. White stripe on nose and side of face. A 
very clean little animal—makes a good pet when tamed. 
The curator of the British Zoological Garden at London 
asserts that our American badger is not a true badger. 
Differs from the European in dentition, and comes out in 
the day, while the European comes out at night. He is 
wrong. 

These rare animals and birds can not be seen when visi- 
tors travel in crowds. Solitary trips in which the seeker 
after knowledge takes things slowly and quietly, studying 
the landscape, are necessary to bring results. 

The Porcupine, which was formerly common in the 
Dunes, was thought to have totally disappeared, but there 
may be some still in existence there as in 1918 one was 
attacked by a dog near Furnessville and he filled the dog so 
full of quills that the dog almost died. The porcupine can 
not throw quills; but they are so loose that a slight touch re- 
leases them; he strikes with his tail. Doctor Downing, 
of the University of Chicago, reports that a few years ago 
he saw both a wolf and a porcupine in the Dunes. 

The Opossum is still found in the Dunes in the deep 
woods. It is very odd and is the only animal found in 
America, that carries its young in a pouch, just as the 
kangaroo does. It has a very prehensile tail that it can 
coil around a limb and it will then hang down for a long 
time. It is a curious sight to see a mother opossum carrying 
a “bus load of little ones hanging to her back, with her 
big tail coiled over her back, and this bunch of little ones 
with their little tails attached to her large one, so they will 
not tumble off. These are found down South in great num- 
bers and as the Dunes have a southern environment the 


256 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


opossums feel very much at home there. Many white people 
in the South think just as highly of “roast” *possum and 
sweet “‘taters’ as do their colored neighbors. Even north- 
erners seem to relish it and the habit is spreading. 

The opossum has a very curious habit if he is startled 
or scared; he will hang motionless or lie as if dead. One 
may kick him or beat him; he will not show any sign of life; 
but, as soon as one moves away from him, he will first open 
one eye and then the other; when he sees that he is at a 
safe distance, he will jump up and rapidly disappear. This 
habit of camouflaging death is called “playing possum,” and 
is often applied to human beings as well. 

On October 25, 1919, the author met Mr. Fred Tharp, of 
Porter, Indiana, north of Cowles Tamarack Swamp, while 
he was prospecting, and the latter presented him with some 
wild honey that he had just found in a bee tree recently 
cut down; the -honey and bees had been captured by the 
bee hunters. Mr. Tharp says that in 1914 he trapped and 
shot two wolves in Juniper Valley. In 1915 he shot a 
porcupine, a few blocks south of Leman’s Cottage, which 
is on the lake front, directly north of Cowles Tamarack 
Swamp. That year, 1914, was famous for wolves in the 
Dunes. Hunter Green killed two there between Mineral 
Springs and Dune Park, and the caretaker of the Knicker- 
bocker Ice Company at Dune Park killed one that was 
stealing provisions there. Link at Tremont declared he 
killed one also, and showed the pelt. : 

Mr. Tharp says that he has caught many wolves in the 
Dunes in bygone years and that to catch them, he selected 
a young oak tree in the open, and tied a chicken to a branch 
so as to let it hang six or eight feet from the ground, in 


ANIMALS 257 


which, under the sand, he had buried about a dozen traps. 
The wolves, excited by the delicious meal waiting for them, 
would jump frantically for the chicken and come down with 
so much force that one or more of’the traps would be 
sprung, catching the wolf. 

Another animal found here is the Red Fox. It is found 
in the deep woods and also around some of the chicken 
coops. There is a family of them near Furnessville Blow- 
out. Beauties! In earlier times, they were very plentiful. 
Hunter Green tells about catching not only the Red Fox but 
also a Gray, a Silver and a Black Fox, about thirty to forty 
years ago. To one skilled in reading footprints, the trail 
of the fox can be traced in the white sand of the Dunes. 
He is the hero of countless myths, among both Indians and 
whites, and is the embodiment of cunning. 

The Raccoon is found here, and sometimes the old-fash- 
ioned “coon hunt’’ is indulged in by the neighbors, who 
hold a regular jollification meeting over it. This animal is 
a small cousin of the bear, and is called the ‘‘Wash-bear”’ 
by the Germans, owing to its habit of washing its food be- 
fore partaking of it. It is sometimes called the ‘Wood 
Cat” by the country people. 

There are many Mink found in the streams and marshes 
of the Dunes. This bloodthirsty animal is cunning, and it 
has a very choice fur. It is interesting to watch the experts 
set their traps; they are very careful. 

Its big cousin, the Otter, was formerly quite prevalent in 
the Dunes, and Otter Creek, a branch of Trail Creek, at 
Michigan City, was so called because of the number of 
otters found there. They have not been seen here for years. 

Beaver were formerly very common in the Dune region 


258 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


and the early settlers spoke of them as still living here in 
limited numbers, but they disappeared long ago. Hunter 
Green saw both otter and beaver here in the ‘fifties. 

Another animal found here in abundance is the Skunk, 
that animal of unsavory memory; it yields a fine fur, the 
best of which is the pure black. The most beautiful one 
has two broad silver stripes along its sides; but this is too 
distinctive a brand and too hard to dye, so it is rated as the 
cheapest one. They are sometimes called Wood Pussies 
and ignorant tenderfeet have often suffered shipwreck from 
them. Some Indian tribes, the Sioux especially, wear skunk 
skins at their belts, to show that they never run from any- 
body. These are occasionally attached to their feet, to make 
their bravery more striking, for all animals give the skunk 
plenty of room. 

The Muskrat is in his element in the Dune region, living 
by the thousands in the great marshes to be found there. 
Who is not familiar with the dome-shaped winter nest, look- 
ing like a small haycock, out in the swamps! They are 
sometimes found miles away from a stream, or even a 
large marsh. One very large one was killed in the spring 
of 1918 in the writer’s school garden at the Van Vlissingen 
School, Chicago, on the corner of Wentworth Avenue and 
One Hundred Ninth Street, in a well settled district. How 
did it get there? The fur is very good if taken in the winter, 
and the animal is considered good to eat in late fall and 
early winter, when it is fat. Some people claim it is really 
toothsome. It is one of the chief fur-bearing animals in 
the country. 

There are plenty of Rabbits scattered throughout this 
region. It is a pleasure to watch these little animals playing 


ANIMALS 259 


around, as they are at times tame and are often kept as 
pets. 

The Mole is exceedingly common in the Dunes, and his 
burrows can be followed for many feet in the soft sand. 
His skin is very soft and velvety, and is used for small 
articles of apparel, purses, etc. He is considered blind by 
the average countryman, but he has a pair of very minute 
eyes, covered by the skin, that are just able to distinguish 
between light and darkness. 

The Woodchuck or Groundhog is found here by the 
thousands. Conditions are ideal for him, soft soil, and 
plenty of food in the low wooded sand-ridges along the 
swamps and in the gullies, as well as in the meadows. 
“Groundhog Day” is February second; and the ancient tra- 
dition is that the groundhog, after waking up from his long 
winter's sleep, or period of hibernation, steps outside to 
“take an observation.” If he sees the sun, it is an un- 
favorable omen; it means six weeks more of winter, so he 
goes back to bed and resumes his interrupted nap, which is 
supposed to last until the middle of March. If he does not 
see the sun on February second, then he feels sure that 
winter has finally ended, so he stays up and gets to work for 
the ensuing year. 

Of all the Squirrels, the most interesting is the little Red 
Squirrel or Chickaree. It is an attractive animal and very 
bold, chasing away all of the larger Squirrels in its neigh- 
borhood. Who has not been amused at its antics, running 
down the trunk of a near-by tree, with its head sticking 
out at right angles, and barking at the intruder as if telling 
him to clear out! 

He not only stores up the hickory nuts, walnuts, hazel- 


260 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


nuts, etc., but if there happens to be a variety of small 
apple that he likes, he will also take that and cache it. Dur- 
ing the summer of 1918 at Forest Lake, Wisconsin, we were 
amused greatly at the maneuvers of some of these squirrels. 
They developed a great fondness for the Yellow Transpar- 
ent apple, and gradually, from picking up the windfalls, 
they climbed the small trees and helped themselves to the 
choice fruit, climbing with it to a high oak tree and caching 
it in a fork of two or three branches. 

The best apples were then picked by us and placed on 
the south window-sills in the house to ripen. It was amus- 
ing to see the squirrels ; one little fellow was especially eager, 
running up and down the wire screen, as if mad, trying to 
bite his way through, and screaming at the top of his voice. 
When they found they could not get the nice Yellow Trans- 
parents, they began on the Tetofskys, or Russian Crabs, and 
in a few days they almost cleared off a small tree of these 
red apples. 

The little chickaree is the deadliest foe to birds known. 
He eats both eggs and the young birds and older ones if he 
can get them. That is the reason that there are so few 
birds in sections inhabited largely by squirrels. 

That is the reason that Oak Park, that beautiful suburb 
of Chicago, almost lost her magnificent elms, which in some 
streets formed a beautiful archway over the streets for 
blocks at a time. The officials gave undue protection to her 
squirrels. People who killed them were fined, even though 
the squirrels damaged houses by nesting in the attics, and 
destroyed property. 

As a result, the squirrels killed the birds that formerly 
killed the insects ; and, the balance of nature being destroyed, 


AN TIVE Tos) 261 


the insects, especially the tussock moth, multiplied to such 
an incredible extent, that they devoured nearly all living 
plants. When J. H. Prost, the expert Chicago City Forester, 
was asked to investigate, he said the residents should have 
the greater part of the squirrels killed, if they wished trees 
and birds. When this was done, the birds came back and 
devoured the insects, and the trees and the plants soon 
became thriving and beautiful again. 

The large Gray Squirrel and the Fox Squirrel are more 
plentiful in the Dunes than their master, the little red chick- 
aree. Both of these squirrels grow to be very large. One 
day while walking along the Valparaiso Road at Tremont, 
a magnificent specimen of the fox squirrel was seen on a 
young oak tree in Hauber’s Woods. He was getting ready 
to run down the side of the tree and was stretched out flat 
to his fullest measure, looming up so large that it seemed 
to be a small red fox, with its red fur and bushy tail. He 
stayed there long enough to present this rare view, then ran 
down the tree and disappeared. The brush was over a foot 
long and over three inches wide. As large as this squirrel 
was, it would have fled had the small chickaree been 
after it. 

In the summer of 1918, Mrs. Brennan and I took a walk 
from Tremont through the woods to the old Haunted 
House at the Furnessville Trail, following the old Detroit- 
Chicago stage road to the place. While seated on a mossy 
bank at the side of the Dunes, under mighty oaks, we 
noticed a large gray squirrel, in a maple tree below the old 
trail along the swamp. It was about fifty feet away and 
as we kept very still we had a fine chance to watch him. He 
would run up and down the tree, swing around to a Vir- 


262 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


ginia creeper or an adjoining tree, gather up acorns, and, 
sitting up on his haunches and holding the acorns between 
his paws would eat them. We were surprised at the size 
of this little animal and especially at its exceedingly large 
and bushy plume, which was even larger than that of the 
fox squirrel just mentioned. 


Geko al US cH aD, 
BIRDS 


THERE is probably no spot in America that has a 
greater variety of birds than the Chicago Dune region. 
Over three hundred species have been found here, some 
of them exceedingly rare; over thirty species are resi- 
dents the year around; about seventy-five are summer resi- 
dents, who nest here in summer and depart for the South 
in autumn; probably fifteen are winter residents; and a 
few, about ten, are winter visitors. 

The remainder are migrants that go through here in the 
spring on their northern trip and pass through in the 
autumn on their trip to the South. Let the readers who 
go to the Dunes keep their eyes open. They may discover 
a species never found here before, as the Dunes shelter 
many a rare animal or plant. 

A sheltered basin extends along the shores of Lake Michi- 
gan, and includes the hills and forests near it. Mr. Nehling, 
for many years Curator of the Milwaukee Museum, and an 
authority on birds, states in his hand-colored illustrated 
folio on birds, that while he has studied and collected birds 
nearly all over the world, he has never seen such a number 
and variety of birds as in the southern part of Sheboygan 
County, Wisconsin, owing to the nearness of Lake Michi- 

262 


264. THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


gan, and to the variety of trees and bushes, with their 
shelter, fruit and berries, and the number of ridges, hills, 
lakes and swamps there, giving ideal conditions for living 
and nesting. He speaks especially of the very large number 
of thorn trees that give food and protection to the birds. 
This region is much like the Dunes; is, in fact, the Wiscon- 
sin Duneland and includes the Tolleston, Calumet and Glen- 
wood Beaches, and the Valparaiso Moraine, just as in the 
Indiana Duneland, only not such typical lake dunes. 

It has the same type of hills, forests and small lakes, 
and the same birds. Here many of the Warblers, who go 
through the Chicago Dune region stay and build their nests, 
the Blackburnian Warbler being especially noted. The 
Ruffed Grouse are plentiful there. 

The parks of Chicago and other cities are most admir- 
able places in which to study birds. Mr. Herbert E. Walter, 
of the Waller High School, Chicago, has published a useful 
little book, Wild Birds in City Parks. He describes one 
hundred and forty-five different birds in this book and at 
present a number more have been discovered. The Birds 
of the Chicago Area, by Woodruff, is the best book on the 
birds of this region, especially the illustrated edition, as 
he quotes from Butler, Nelson, Ridgway, etc., as well as 
gives the results of his own extended observations. Reed’s 
Books on Birds are also very helpful to the hiker. Butler’s 
Birds of Indiana, and Ridgway’s Birds of Illinois are essen- 
tial to the bird lover. Chapman is very good. Cory’s Birds 
of Illinois and Wisconsin is also an excellent book. 

The western part of Duneland, from Miller to Dune Park, 
and the central part, from Dune Park to Waverly Beach, 
are becoming well known; the eastern part, from Tremont 


BIRDS 265 


to Michigan City, is but little known, except at Tremont, 
Furnessville and Tamarack; the rest is seldom traveled. 
This is the home of rare birds, plants and animals; it even 
included a small park of wolves, but these have lately been 
killed off. The very wealth and variety of natural sur- 
roundings yield a wealth of plant and animal life. The 
writer, who as a naturalist and historian, has visited and 
studied the Dunes for forty years, finds something new and 
interesting every trip. 

For instance, on a hike through the Dunes on June 5, 
1921, a mother Partridge, with her babies, was met in the 
swamp at Tremont, near the path. It clucked with alarm, 
and the babies scattered through the leaves. The mother- 
bird, with drooping wings, crawled under a big trunk of 
a tree and away. When I stepped down into the swamp, 
she ran swiftly at me, the picture of rage, with her wings 
down and her feathers bristling; but as I did not move 
she stopped at my feet, looked up, and silently slunk 
away. After I went off, a loud triumphant call was given 
to indicate the intruder had left, and the babies returned. 

Of all the birds that have frequented this region, the 
grandest was the Trumpeting Swan, from sixty to sixty-six 
inches long, with spread of wings from eight to ten feet. 
It takes the name trumpeter from its ringing note, which 
much resembles the blast from a French horn, and is caused 
by the extreme length of the trachea or wind-pipe, and its 
peculiar foldings, which give it the sonorous note. The 
common American Swan, or the Whistling Swan, is not 
quite so large a bird as the trumpeting swan, and is more 
common in our region. The old leaders have a note that 
resembles in a remarkable degree the sound of a common 


266 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


tin horn, instead of the mellow tone of the trumpeting 
swan, and this unmusical tone increases with age. 

On November 26, 1918, six swans of the whistling species 
were seen in Lake Michigan, near Miller. Soon three of 
them flew on to the Grand Calumet River, where they were 
shot. One of them was sent to Doctor Frank M. Woodruff, 
the bird expert of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, who 
had it stuffed and mounted, and it is now on exhibition 
there. He had a part of the swan roasted for his Thanks- 
giving dinner and said that it was very appetizing. It isa 
shame to kill these beautiful birds even for science. 

Another remarkable bird was the White Pelican. This 
was formerly very common in Lake Calumet, as well as the 
lakes and rivers of the Dune region, and is occasionally a 
visitor. 

The Canada Goose, that warrior of the air, whose honk! 
honk! can be heard every spring and fall, as their V-shaped 
phalanxes come flying to or from the Arctic regions, was 
formerly a well-known resident of the whole Chicago Dune 
region, breeding in the Calumet and Kankakee marshes. 
They sometimes stop in the Dunes now. 

There are many Ducks in our region, the first of which 
is the Canvasback, so-called on account of the mixed silvery 
and black back. Up to the fifties and ’sixties, and even 
’seventies, this duck was very common in the Calumet 
marshes, and especially in Lake Calumet, which was plenti- 
fully stocked with its favorite food, wild celery or eel-grass. 
An old copy of Harper's Magazine, published in 1855, gives 
an illustration showing how they hunted ducks on Lake 
Calumet in those days. The method does not seem to have 
changed very much, even in these enlightened days. One 


BIRDS | 267 


man is standing up in the boat with his gun, pointing at 
a flock of ducks that are evidently circling around, and he 
seems to be following their motions. Another is “taking an 
observation” through a large bottle, while a comrade, who 
has undoubtedly finished his observation, is leaning over the 
boat, with his gun hanging in the water. Only one man 
seems to be busy shooting; probably the boatman. 

The most beautiful of all is the Wood Duck, so-called 
because it builds its nest in a tree near the water, preferring 
a branch that overhangs the water. When the little ones 
fly from their nests in the trees, or are helped out by the 
parents, they swim off as if they are used to it. 

Of the ducks that are found here, the most common is 
the Mallard, the ancestor of our common duck. Both kinds 
of Teal are also found. 

The most common of our ducks in the spring migrations 
is the Pintail, so-called because it has a long tail, the central 
feathers projecting greatly. It is a beautiful bird. 

The Waders in our Dune region are many. The numer- 
ous lakes and marshes furnish them with just the conditions 
they need, and they thrive here. The Great Whooping 
Crane was formerly found in this region, and their dis- 
cordant cries while they are migrating are still occasionally 
heard. This crane is a magnificent bird, white, with great 
spread wings; Butler gives it as having a spread of ninety- 
two inches. 

The Sandhill Crane was formerly very common in the 
Calumet marshes, and nested around Lake Calumet in the 
fifties and ’sixties; it may still be found in the Dunes. 

The Great Blue Heron is a bird about forty-eight inches 
high, formerly common in our marshes, but it is gradually 


268 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


becoming exterminated in this region. There are still a 
few left in the Dunes; also a number around Liverpool and 
East Gary. The author saw one at Silver Creek, Tremont, 
in 1920. 

The American Egret, years ago, nested in the Calumet 
marshes. It recently nested in the Kankakee marshes, some- 
times on the same trees with the Great Blue Heron. It is 
a beautiful white heron, forty-one inches high, without 
plumes, except at nesting season, when they grow out from 
the back in a long train like that of the Peacock, only these 
are white and plumy. There is a White Heron in the Dune 
Panorama at the Chicago Academy of Sciences that was 
shot years ago at Liverpool, Indiana, by Doctor Woodruff. 

The Snowy Heron, or Egretta candidissint, is a beautiful 
White Egret. It is smaller than the American egret, being 
only twenty-four inches high. Its plumage is white and in 
the nesting season there are three sets of plumes provided; 
numerous recurved plumes from the back of the head; a 
set that hangs down from the breast; and a wonderful 
recurved set that comes from the back, and recurves toward 
the back in a sweeping plume. 

It is a beautiful bird, and many thousands of them have 
been killed and their families exterminated; yea, even the 
warders murdered !—that some women could have the pleas- 
ure of wearing these plumes. As a result, the white egret 
has been almost exterminated, like the Auk and the Wild 
Pigeon. Early travelers, many years ago, state that it 
nested in our region and was pretty common. It has not 
been seen in the Dune region for a number of years. E-xter- 
minated ! 

The Great Northern Loon is found here, in the different 


BIRDS 269 


lakes and rivers. His weird unearthly cry suggests some 
one or something under the influence of the moon, which 
is supposed to affect the mind of anybody exposed too 
much to its influence, and makes him looney, or moon- 
struck, from /una, moon; for the cry of this bird sounds so 
like the wail of some lost soul, that the bird has received the 
name of loon or moon-bird. It is interesting to see a 
loon dive, and then guess when and where he will come 
up. 
The Pied-Bill Grebe is the one especially that people call 
the Hell-Diver, because he can get under water so fast 
when scared that often you can not see him disappear. The 
reason is that his feet are placed far back like those of the 
loon and penguin, and there is no lost motion in getting 
into action. 

The Phalaropes, or Web-Footed Snipe, are noted as being 
the only birds in which the female wears the breeding 
plumage. She is larger than the male, and is far more 
brilliantly colored in the breeding season, having a large 
shining band of red in her coloring, on neck and back. In 
all of the species, the male does the most of the nest-build- 
ing and incubation. Mrs. Phalarope is certainly the original 
woman’s righter. 

The Woodcock is a most interesting bird with its short, 
thick body, very long bill, and very large protuberant eyes, 
which are placed ‘almost on the top of its head to keep 
them out of the way as much as possible when digging for 
worms, and also giving it a chance to look out for enemies. 

It is a very shy, suspicious bird, with gray and white 
plumage, intershot with a brownish tint, that acts as a 
natural camouflage, rendering it almost invisible when on 


270 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


the nest or at rest. When on the nest, its mother love seems 
to change its whole nature. It will stay until the visitor 
is almost up to the nest; and if the latter will go very 
slowly and carefully the woodcock will allow itself to be 
stroked or even lifted up and then restored. It is still 
found in the Calumet and Desplaines regions. 

Among the shore birds are the Wilson Snipe, and the 
different species of the Sandpiper. The Jack Snipe is one 
of the most common. 

The beautiful Carolina Paroquet was formerly, from 
eighty to one hundred years ago, more or less common 
throughout Indiana and Illinois. Travelers and early pio- 
neers mention it. It has not been seen here for many years. 

The Belted Kingfisher, that stays with us from April 
to October, is one of the most common and active birds to 
be seen around the Dunes. He is a welcome visitor, and is 
especially so to the fisherman, who often throws a small fish 
overboard to him, as he waits for his dinner on a stake 
near by. His raucous rattle sounds quite cheerful then. 

Our Dune region for years has been noted for its abun- 
dance of game birds, such as the Wild Turkey, different 
varieties of Grouse and the Quail. The king of them all 
was the wild turkey. The early missionaries, explorers 
and trappers speak of it as very common in Northern Illinois 
and Indiana. Mr. John Morgan killed many of them in 
the Dunes in the ’forties. Mr. Holmes, near Bloom or 
Chicago Heights, said they were very common in those early 
days in the Dune and Beach regions. 

The more common game birds were the Prairie Chicken 
or Pinnated Grouse, and the Partridge, or Ruffed Grouse. 


BIRDS 271 


Those were formerly very common in this Chicago and Dune 
region, and there are still quite a number of the latter left. 

The Sharp-tailed Grouse was discovered by a few of us 
near the Prairie Club Beach House in 1915. We were 
ascending Mount Holden, where some tracks of a large 
bird, leading to the hill, were observed. We went quietly 
up the hill and found the bird at the summit. It was not 
in the least scared, but allowed us to come within twenty 
feet of it, giving us an excellent opportunity to examine it, 
while at the same time it was given a fine opportunity to 
examine us. After it had watched us sufficiently, it sud- 
denly sprang up, without the slightest noise, and soared 
away, first circling over the lake for some distance, and 
then curving back to the southeast, settling in the deep 
woods. 

Mr. Leegwater had a second close view of it in Sep- 
tember, this time in the swamp adjoining the big woods 
to the east. He almost stepped on it, and had a chance to 
get a good look at it. He noted its large size, long neck 
and rusty buff-color, with dark and white bars, as well as 
the projecting central tail feathers, and the feathers on the 
legs to the base of the toes. In tracing up this bird, all 
indications led to its being the sharp-tailed grouse. But, 
as it had never before been recorded in Indiana, and has 
not been seen in Northeastern Illinois since 1864, it seemed 
too good to be true. Doctor Barrett, State Geologist of 
Indiana, stated in a letter to the writer that he had examined 
lists of all the birds found in Indiana, but could find no 
mention of the sharp-tailed grouse as having been seen 
there; though it is mentioned by Butler as a probable native 


272 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


of Indiana, because it is a native of Illinois. This is the 
first time that it has been recorded as an Indiana bird. 

Mr. Millard F. Green, of Tremont, whose father and 
grandfather kept the old Green Hotel at New City West, 
now Tremont, from 1850 to 1870, informed the writer 
that he had shot several of these birds, and thought they 
were a kind of partridge. Mr. Brown, the caretaker of 
Tamarack, says that the sharp-tailed grouse has bred spar- 
ingly in that wild region for many years, and that he has 
shot them. He noted particularly the larger size, the sharp 
tail and the feathers on the legs, in addition to the rusty, 
mottled coloring, which points were different from those of 
the ruffled grouse. Mr. Hall, of Michigan City, also shot 
them. 

The Prairie Chicken, or Pinnated Grouse, is still the most 
common game bird of Illinois and Indiana, and was for- 
merly very common in the Chicago Dune region. In 1873- 
1878 the country around Englewood and Normal Park, 
Chicago, harbored many prairie chickens. The region west 
of these places was particularly abundant in these birds. 
The author in the ‘seventies was often awakened in early 
morning, at Normal Park, by the drumming of the male 
birds a mile away, as they assembled on some dry knoll on 
the Calumet Ridge, west of Halsted Street, from Auburn 
Park to Englewood, Chicago, to hold their annual spring 
love-feast. 

The Ruffed Grouse, or Partridge, is considered the king 
of American game birds. It is emphatically a bird of the 
forest and is found throughout the country from the 
Atlantic Coast to the Great Plains; from the Southland to 
Canada. Who can forget his first partridge that he started 








BIRDS 273 


up in the woods. Suddenly, with a long resounding 
whir-r-r, that sends the heart into the throat, a feathered 
cannon-ball shoots up from the ground at your feet, and 
darting through the trees in its winding flight is out of 
sight long before your heart has settled down from its sud- 
den frenzied beating. The partridge presents a beautiful 
sight, especially when he is drumming or preening himself 
before his flock. This drumming is caused by the wings 
striking the air near the sides very forcibly, but not hitting 
the body. 

They are sometimes very tame. At Tremont, Indiana, 
I have seen a nest in a fallen log, not fifty feet from the 
picturesque trail through the hills, woods and swamps. At 
Portchester, Mr. Martin, of the Prairie Club, discovered a 
partridge in a nest under a stump on a side-hill covered with 
trees, only a couple of rods from the old abandoned Michi- 
gan City State Road. This bird, with its variegated red- 
dish and grayish brown color, and its bars of white and 
brown, fitted so closely into its surroundings of rusty stump, 
russet leaves and whitish sand that it was only by the 
keenest scrutiny that we could make it out in the midst 
of its surroundings. 

The correct name of this bird is the Ruffed Grouse. 
It is commonly called the Partridge in New England and 
the East, and Pheasant in the Southern and Western States. 
In the annual reports of the Game and Fish Commission of 
Illinois it is officially called the Pheasant. 

Mr. Andrew Diekman, of Dolton, Illinois, who is well 
acquainted with the Calumet Region, and whose father 
settled near Glenwood in 1849, says that his father shot 
many deer and timber wolves in that region and also around 


274 THE WONDERS ‘OF THE DUNES 


Dyer, Indiana. Birds of all kinds were found there and on 
the great Indiana beaches also. Turkeys, prairie chicken 
and partridges were common, the latter coming into the yard 
and eating with the chickens. 

One day Mr. Diekman was walking on the old Lousy 
Ridge Road, as the pioneers called the old Chicago Road 
along the Glenwood Ridge to Dyer and beyond, on account 
of the fleas and other insects, when suddenly he was struck 
in the chest so sharply by a feathered thunderbolt that he 
was compelled to gasp for breath. It was a mother part- 
ridge, who had tried to protect her young ones. Mr. Diek- 
man watched the bird for fully a minute, as she stood there 
waiting for another move from him; and then seeing he 
was not dangerous, she tried to lead him away by the 
old tricks, pretending to be lame, fluttering ahead, etc. The 
little partridge chicks scattered on every side to escape 
danger. 

Of all the wild birds none seems more appreciated by 
the nature lover, the farmer, and alas! the hunter, than 
the cheery Bob White. He is such a sociable bird when he 
is not hunted, that the nature lover has a great fondness 
for him. The farmer has no greater friend than this bird, 
which eats innumerable quantities of weed seeds, caterpillars 
and potato bugs. 

While the author was standing at the little waiting room 
at Tremont, in June, 1917, a pair of quail were noticed 
picking up food along the track, not fifty feet from the 
station. They made a beautiful sight, with their bright 
fresh coloring and dainty ways. After a while they flew 
into the field near by and soon we heard their cheery “Bob 
White.’ In November, 1918, a flock of eighteen were seen 


BIRDS 275 


just east of the Haunted House, near the Furnessville Trail. 
Their “Bob-White” was heard at Tremont in June, 1921. 

As the Virginia quail is often called partridge in some 
sections, it is now generally called Bob White to distinguish 
it from the western species of quail, or the ruffed grouse, 
which is generally called partridge, or in country districts, 
patridge. 

The male quail is a pugnacious little fellow who enjoys 
a scrap. In ancient times the Romans took advantage of 
this, and had great tournaments in which hundreds of them 
fought in mortal combat. It is said the Roman soldiers, 
among other mascots, carried their champion quail war- 
riors with them, which furnished them with their so-called 
“sport.” 

The saddest page in the history of American birds is 
the disappearance of the Wild Pigeon. It was formerly 
abundant from Hudson Bay southward to the Gulf, and 
west to the Great Plains, and often congregated in large 
flocks, which obscured the sun in their flight. 

They were formerly abundant in Northern Illinois, In- 
diana and Ohio, while in many cases they were migrants 
on their way to their nesting localities in Michigan, Wiscon- 
sin, Minnesota and Ohio. There were also many that nested 
in the Chicago area, from Waukegan to Michigan City, 
and eastward. Mr. Alvin Gale, who as a little boy lived 
in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, from 1848, says they were 
there by the million; many of them flew across the lake to 
Michigan to nest. Sometimes vast flocks would be drowned 
in awful storms, as an old lake captain told the author many 
years ago. 

Their great nesting places, in the northern part of the 


276 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


United States, sheltered them in vast numbers. The large 
trees, dead pines and oaks especially, were filled with nests, 
which were so crowded that the limbs would break, and 
many nests would be destroyed. Some pigeons would nest 
in Northern Illinois, including Cook County, but these were 
comparatively few as the pigeons preferred Northern In- 
diana, especially the Sand Dune region, with its great dunes 
covered with tall pines and oaks, shrubs and other plants, 
and variety of fruits, nuts, berries and seeds. Their favor- 
ite nesting place in the Dunes was among the pines at the 
foot of the Dunes from two to three miles east of Tremont, 
near the Furnessville Blowout, about three miles north of 
Chesterton, Indiana, and also around Pine, near Clark. Mr. 
Millard F. Green, of Tremont, told the writer that when 
he was a little boy, about fifty years ago, he could remem- 
ber seeing the vast flocks of wild pigeons that migrated 
through the Dune country on their way to the Michigan 
woods, as well as the vast numbers that nested in the Dunes 
themselves. 

Some of these flocks of pigeons were blocks in extent, 
and one flock was so vast that he is positive there were over 
a million pigeons in it. This is evidently the great flock 
described by Mr. Patterson, of Liverpool, Indiana. Myriads 
of pigeons nested in the Dunes, and Mr. Green says that 
he has gone many times at night with his father to the 
nesting and roosting places of the big pines and knocked 
over the birds with a club, taking them home for food. 
They were so common that the settlers got tired of them. 
They were plentiful there until about 1880, when they began 
to diminish rapidly. None has been recorded in the 


BIRDS 277 


Chicago Dune region in many years, ae some people 
claim to have seen a few. 

The writer, when living at Princeton Avenue and Seven- 
tieth Street, Normal Park, Chicago, from 1872 to 1877, had 
the privilege of witnessing the migration of many birds, as 
the region from Englewood to South Englewood seemed 
to be in the migratory belt leading from Wisconsin through 
Illinois and Indiana. They came in the fall from the 
northwest and traveled toward the southeast into Indiana, 
where some pigeons settled in the Sand Dune region, while 
others went up to Michigan. Other flocks flew across the 
lake. 

Some of these flocks of pigeons were large. One, in 
1874, seen by the author, at Seventy-fourth Street and the 
Rick Island tracks, Chicago, was over a thousand feet long, 
nearly that wide and at least twenty feet deep. It flew to- 
ward the southeast. The woods of giant oaks along the old 
“Michigan Road, or Holland Road, on Tolleston Ridge, ex- 
tending from the old Ten-Mile House, corner of Vincennes 
Avenue and Eighty-third Street, to the Eleven-Mile House 
on State Street, near Ninety-third Street, was a favorite 
place for the wild pigeons, as that was on their route toward 
the Dunes, and provided much food. The author has shot a 
number of wild pigeons for food. They were delicious 
unless an old veteran was served. Very tough. 

In 1874 a party of Cook County Normal School students 
went on a combined botanical and hunting expedition to 
Hog Island, near Stony Island Avenue and Seventy-sixth 
Street, at that time one of the most famous botanical 
grounds in Illinois. It was an elevated spot in the great 


278 THE, WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


marshy region called Lake Winnemuc by the Indians, and 
Hog Lake by the white pioneers. Many wild pigeons were 
in the woods, and a number were shot by the hunters. 
Suddenly an awful storm came up, and a regular hurricane 
developed. Great trees were snapped like saplings; houses 
were ‘blown down; the black and livid clouds seemed to 
touch the trees; it became so dark that one could scarcely 
see his neighbor, except as the lightning flashed. The air 
was sultry and suffocating, highly charged with electricity, 
and the nerves were strongly affected. The pigeons also 
were very strongly and curiously affected by it. They came 
from the tops of the trees to the lower branches, uttering 
mournful cries as they flew down, finally coming down 
almost to the ground, seeking our protection. They were 
all around us. 

When the big trees around us began to come down and 
the floods to descend, it was considered the wisest plan to 
decamp and seek shelter in the railroad station some distance 
away. Doctor A. W. Brayton, the noted biologist of the 
Normal School, now of Indianapolis, who was botanizing a 
few blocks away, had enough presence of mind to lie down 
in a field, against a fence post, to which he clung. He said 
it was the worst storm he had ever seen. 

The cause of the extermination of the wild pigeon is 
easily summed up in one word—greed. They were killed 
for food by the early settlers; later for commercial pur- 
poses, being shipped to the cities and towns. Another 
commercial scheme helped to further the destruction, and 
that was collecting the eggs during the Civil War and _ 
shipping them to the large cities. 

About 1864 New York and Brooklyn, and other cities, 


BIRDS 279 


received many millions of these pigeon eggs which were 
placed on the market at from ten to fifteen cents a dozen. 
Hens’ eggs were from seventy-five cents a dozen for store 
eggs, to one dollar or more a dozen for fresh eggs, and 
these pigeon eggs were brought in from the Northwest 
to compete. Most of the eggs were good, but some were 
very bad. 

Mr. Harry Eenigenberg, who lived on the old Michigan 
Road, near Lansing, Illinois, says that in the ’sixties and 
‘seventies the pigeons were present by the millions; they 
nested in the big woods there, and in the Indiana Dunes. 
The pigeons in that region were in large numbers from 
1872 to 1874, and the great flocks. of migrating birds were 
much larger in those years. This statement is corroborated 
by Messrs. John Morgan, of Chesterton, M. T. Green and 
J. Wheeler, of Tremont, Arthur Patterson, of Liverpool, 
Mayor Krueger, of Michigan City, and Mr. Andrew Diek- 
man, of Dolton, Illinois. The reason for this is undoubtedly 
the fact that the great woods of Minnesota, Wisconsin and 
Michigan were almost entirely burned up in 1871, and the 
pigeons found their nesting places gone. They accord- 
ingly located south of their usual homes, and settled in the 
Dunes, the beaches, and other localities having large trees 
and plenty of food. 


CHART ER oO) 
BIRDS—C ontinued 


OF ALL birds, the most striking, impressive and majestic 
is the Eagle, which includes both the Golden and the Bald 
Eagle. The golden eagle has dark plumage intershot with 
golden brown. It lives in Canada, United States, the north- 
ern part of Mexico, and Europe; and it is still found in 
Northern Illinois and Northern Indiana. One was exhibited 
at Palmer Park, near Pullman, in 1915, that had recently 
been shot in Northern Indiana, near Kouts. It swooped 
into a farmer’s barnyard in pursuit of a chicken, and when 
the farmer objected, attacked him, giving the man a fierce 
tussle until the son came out with a shotgun and shot the 
bird, wounding it. It was kept for a while, but was very 
savage and refused to eat, so it was killed and mounted. 

The golden eagle, with his plumage, his great spread of 
wings, from seventy-five to eighty inches, and his majestic 
flight, which has entitled him to the honor of being crowned 
the King of Birds, is a most impressive, striking bird. The 
great Bald or White-headed Eagle—the symbol of Ameri- 
can Freedom—with his splendid plumage, his stern piercing 
eye, his majestic, awe-inspiring presence, is still more im- 
pressive. One magnificent specimen in the collection of 
the Audubon Club, Chicago, is three feet six and three- 

280 


BIRDS 281 


fourths inches in total length and eight feet and one and 
one-half inches in extent of wings. 

The white-headed eagle was formerly common in both 
Indiana and Illinois, but is gradually being killed off, though 
it is now protected and a heavy fine is levied for killing 
one, as they are beneficial birds, consuming enough destruc- 
tive rodents, etc., to more than pay for any young lambs, 
pigs or calves that they might destroy. Doctor Frank 
Woodruff saw a Bald Eagle as late as 1919, at Miller, In- 
diana, where they previously had a nest. They may still 
be in the Dunes near Tamarack, Indiana, but it is doubtful. 

The Turkey Vulture or Turkey Buzzard, with its black 
feathers, edged with brown, and its head and upper part 
of its neck naked, with the skin bright red, is a southern 
bird, but has been seen in the Dunes and Chicago region. 
It would pay nature lovers to keep an eye out for them. 
Doctor Woodruff saw one in 1917, near Miller. 

The Black Vulture, or Carrion Crow, has been seen as 
far north as Waukegan, Illinois; it also visits the Dunes 
occasionally. 

Many species of Hawks are found in the Dune region, 
the principal ones being the Marsh, Sharp-shinned, 
Cooper’s, Duck, Pigeon and Sparrow Hawks. The Ameri- 
can Osprey, or Fish Hawk, and occasionally the Swallow- 
tailed Kite, are also found here. The kite was noticed at 
Tremont on May 5, 1918. . 

Of all these hawks, but three can truly be classed as really 
destructive to poultry. They are the Sharp-shinned, Cooper’s, 
and the American Goshawk, and are called Accipiters. 

The Sharp-shinned Hawk is often called the Little Blue- 


282 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


tailed Hawk, while the Cooper’s Hawk is called the Big 
Blue-tailed Hawk. 

ihe American Goshawk is a very rare winter visitor, 
The Big and the Little Blue-tailed Hawks are common and 
most destructive; they should be called the real hen hawks, 
as the larger ones commonly called the chicken hawks do 
very little damage. The little blue-tailed hawk generally 
attacks the young chickens and will soon destroy a brood. 

The Cooper’s Hawk is larger, being from fourteen to 
twenty inches long. The body is bluish-gray. It is found 
in the northern part of Illinois and Indiana. Doctor Butler 
says that it is the true chicken hawk and that half of its 
food examined by him in fall and winter, was small birds. 
It is the most destructive of birds. 

The ordinary hen hawk is very slow in getting ready to 
raid a poultry yard, and seldom gets a chicken; he fills up 
on mice and other vermin mainly; but the Accipiters, espe- 
cially the Cooper’s hawk, are so daring and swift that 
the latter has been known to fly low and suddenly dart 
over a wall or fence into a barnyard, seize a chicken and 
be off with it before the dazed farmer could recover him- 
self. , 
The American Goshawk or Goosehawk is often called the 
Big Blue Hen Hawk, and is from twenty-one to twenty- 
five inches long. Its size and strength, activity and rapacity 
make it a dangerous pest. Besides poultry, it eats ruffed 
grouse, quail, doves, rabbits and squirrels, and is often 
called the Partridge Hawk. He 1s fortunately a rare winter 
visitor. 

Mounted specimens of all of our hawks, prepared by 
Doctor Frank Woodruff, can be seen at the Chicago Acad- 


BIRDS 283 


emy of Sciences at Lincoln Park, Chicago. They make a 
splendid collection. 

The Duck Hawk and Pigeon Hawk are true Falcone 
Doctor Butler says of the duck hawk, “He is the largest 
of the true falcons, and if the days of falconry were here, 
he would be considered of great value for such sport.” 
They are occasionally found in the Chicago Dune region. 
Doctor Woodruff saw a magnificent one at Liverpool, In- 
diana, in June, 1918. 

The small dashing Sparrow Hawk is found in this region. 
Last summer the author saw a most beautiful one. It was 
perched on a tree, near the Big Pines, at Furnessville Blow- 
out, Porter County, Indiana. It eats many smaller birds, 
mice, gophers, reptiles and is epecially fond of insects, which 
it captures in great numbers. They are chiefly beneficial 
and should be protected by law. It is an interesting sight 
to watch a kingbird chasing this hawk. The circling, 
doubling and twisting flight makes it very exciting. 

The Owls of the Dunes range in size from the small 
Screech Owl to the Snowy Owl, which occasionally visits 
us in unusually severe winters, like 1876, 1885 and 1880. 

The Barred Owl was formerly common, but in recent 
years it has become a rather uncommon resident. It is 
found in the more heavily wooded regions west of Chicago, 
and also in Northern Indiana. It is generally known as the 
Hoot Owl. At my summer home, at Forest Lake, Wiscon- 
sin, amid the trees and hills, we are favored with a number 
of hoot owls; they perch on the trees near the cottage, as 
well as in the woods around us, and their song is very 
common. The song goes as follows: ‘Who-who-who- 
who-who-who-who-trr-oo00,” giving an upward slant to 


284 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 
“who’—a down drop to “r-r-r,”” and an upward slant to 
“ooo,” giving it the same pitch as who, and also giving the 
last “who-rr-ooo” in a long drawling manner. The words 
who are repeated anywhere from two to seven times, but 
generally seven, before finishing with who and ooo. It 
sounds like a sort of stutter, with the last part sounding 
like, “Who are you!” 

Ridgway describes this hoot in a manner that one can 
never forget, if one has ever heard it at night in a dark 
woods, so dark that one could hardly see the path. “This 
call is far louder than the deep bass hooting of the Great 
Horned Owls, and is also more varied. Frequently, it is 
preceded by a very loud, blood-curdling shriek, causing the 
hair of the uninitiated to rise on his head and his knees 
to tremble for fear that a panther was prowling in the neigh- 
borhood.” It is certainly a “schrechliche” scream. 

The barred owl seems to be the species particularly hated 
by the other birds, especially the crows. Mr. Coale men- 
tions one in Indiana, that was attacked by a wood thrush, 
blue jay, gnat-catcher, great crested fly-catcher, redstart and 
yellow warbler, all calling and flying at it. The author has 
also seen that done, and especially so on the Valparaiso 
Moraine at Forest Lake, Wisconsin, on the road through 
the big woods to New Prospect. 

A number of birds were heard yelling and screaming 
around, over a dozen of them; they were attacking and 
reviling a barred owl that was in a tree near the roadside. 
Among these birds were crows, redstarts, kingbirds, vireos, 
Carolina wren, goldfinch, a Blackburnian warbler, and 
several other warblers, all busy. The feathers were flying, 
as the crows were especially vicious. The owl suffered its 


BIRDS 285 


martyrdom for a while, and then flew from the tree to the 
deep woods, protesting deeply whenever the other birds 
drew blood, escorted by the two crows and a few of the 
other birds, while the remainder settled in the tree and 
held a jollification meeting. 

Judging from the animosity shown by the birds toward 
this owl, he must have been a descendant of the original 
sleepy guardian who failed to prevent the wren who falsely 
claimed the title of King of Birds, from escaping from 
the knot-hole in the tree to which he was chased by the 
indignant birds. This interesting folk story of the trial 
for the title of King of Birds, will be found fully described 
in the account of the Carolina wren, and will explain why 
the wren is sometimes called the King of Birds; also why 
the other birds assault and revile the owl. 

The great Snowy Owl, from twenty to twenty-seven 
inches long, white, with a number of transverse spots or 
bars of slaty brown, and a small ear tuft, is a bird that 
comes from the Arctic shores to visit us only in very cold 
winters. It has been seen in our Chicago and Dune regions, 
and is a very beautiful bird, being sometimes pure white, 
especially when old. It was seen often in the Calumet 
region. It is likely to visit us during any long severe winter, 
and was much in evidence during the long winter of 1876, 
when the snow in this region lasted until May, 1877. L. H. 
Drury, of the Prairie Club, saw a very large and fine speci- 
men near Drury Blowout in late November, 1919. 

The Woodpeckers, such as the Hairy, Downy, Red- 
headed Woodpecker, etc., with the exception of the Yellow- 
bellied Sapsucker, have a long protrusive tongue, that ends 
in a sharp barb, with which they catch insects, and they 


280 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


can extend it into the insect burrows for some distance, 
after they have chiseled a road to it with their strong bills. 
Vhere are many in the Dunes. 

The Sapsucker, however, has no sharp barbed tongue, like 
the other woodpeckers, as he is primarily a sapsucker. His 
tongue has a brush at the end, which is used in brushing 
up sap, and incidentally any insects that may have been 
drowned in the sap or are attracted by it. The sapsucker 
also picks up any insects lying around loose. He is not only 
a sapsucker, but a sapwood eater, as he has been seen to 
dig out the sapwood and swallow it, and it has been found 
in his stomach. It is interesting to see him dig out sapwood 
and eat insects, as well as suck the sap. The holes he digs 
in getting sapwood fill up with sap, and so make excellent 
insect traps also. It is a question whether he is helpful 
or harmful. 

The Whip-poor-Will is still common in some parts of 
the Dunes, though quite rare in general. It nests here 
also. It is found in trees near Miller, Treniont and other 
places in that neighborhood. It is a remarkable insect eater, 
and has long bristles at the base of the bill to protect it 
from insects. It eats many of the large moths and other 
insects that infest woods and fields. 

It must not be confounded with its cousin the Night 
Hawk. The whip-poor-will has a round tail with white 
sides; chestnut and black-barred wing feathers, black chin, 
white throat and deeper-cleft mouth, to admit larger in- 
sects. 

The night hawk has a forked tail, the male having a white 
band across its tail and white band across wing. Its mouth 
is not so deeply cleft as the whip-poor-will. Some people 


BIRDS 287 


consider the whip-poor-will the “female of the night hawk, 
because it talks so much!” What a slander! 

Vhe cry of the whip-poor-will has often been called 
solemn and prophetic. This is possibly true down south, 
but certainly not up north, where the weather is more 
bracing. Its cry is repeated about a half-dozen or more 
times, in quick succession; then a rest and some more. This 
may be kept up the whole night, and is especially objection- 
able about three o’clock in the morning. 

A giant cousin of the whip-poor-will is the Giant Goat- 
sucker, or Chuck-wills-Widow. All of this family of night 
insect-eaters are called Goatsuckers from the old-country 
idea that the reason they were found so much around the 
goats, which are the small cows of so mariy old-world 
peasants, was because they were trying to suck the milk 
from the goats. The truth was that they were trying to 
catch the insects that were bothering the goats. This ancient 
belief is what has given them the old scientific name— 
Caprimulgus—to this family as well as its common one— 
goatsucker. 

The giant goatsucker is also called the chuck-wills-widow 
from its cry. It had never been recorded in Northern 
Indiana and Illinois, until, on June 1, 1919, the author 
was fortunate enough to come across a family of giant goat- 
suckers or chuck-wills-widows at Tremont, a couple of 
blocks south of Mount Tom, near Fort Creek, while on a 
solitary stroll, studying the neighborhood. 

The goatsuckers were huddled together at the east side 
of a clump of oak brush. I almost stepped on this flock 
of two large birds, each one almost as big as a hawk with 
two smaller ones about two-thirds as large. They made 


288 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


an interesting group, mottled something like a partridge 
with rusty-red, dark and light bars, and white tips. 

They were at first too startled to fly, then rose and 
divided, the female with the two smaller ones going off 
to the west, while the male, uttering a low chuck-chuck- 
chuck, flew near the ground about fifty yards to the east, 
where it lit under a bushy tree. Careful stalking brought 
ine to within forty feet of it and gave an opportunity for 
careful study. It was a remarkable bird, and although a 
stranger, was recognized at once. It resembled a giant 
whip-poor-will, which it practically is. It was much larger 
than the whip-poor-will. 

I followed this bird for half an hour, tracking him from 
spot to spot, generally getting about thirty to forty feet 
from him, thus having an excellent opportunity for study- 
ing him. It was the male bird, because the upper part of 
the tail feathers was white, which is not the case with the 
female. His feathers were mottled something like the sharp- 
tailed grouse. I also sketched him. 

His head was large and flattish, with large protuberant 
eyes. These were set above the very deeply-cleft mouth 
which was protected by long, strongly branched bristles. 
This bird swallows not only large moths and insects, but 
also small birds, as these have been found in its stomach. 
It has a whitish-yellow throat band, and is very full 
breasted, which may explain the popular name, the Dutch 
whip-poor-will, as given by Ridgway. Every time it got 
ready to fly, it uttered several notes, Chuck! chuck! chuck! 

It has soft feathers, and when excited, it puffed itself 
out, with fluffy feathers, until it looked something like 
a pouter pigeon. Its mouth was cleft beyond its eyes. Its 


BIRDS 289 


wings were a foot long, and the bird, which gave me the 
opportunity five times of seeing it fly, had a wing stretch 
of two feet. Some stuffed ones that Doctor Woodruff has 
at the Chicago Academy of Sciences measure fully two 
feet from tip to tip of wings when fully expanded. 

Doctor Butler says that its northern limit was near Vin- 
cennes, Knox County, Indiana. Doctor Ridgway says that 
the northern limit in Ilinois was in Richland County, near 
Mount Carmel, which is west of Vincennes. Doctor A. W. 
Brayton tells me he has seen it near Indianapolis. The 
unusually hot, dry summer of I919 is undoubtedly what 
caused this pair of chuck-wills-widows to fly so far north. 

The Humming Bird, with its exquisite coloring and artis- 
tic nest, is one of our most valued summer residents. It 
is a pleasure to see this bird, like a butterfly, hovering with 
pulsating wings whose vibrations are so rapid that they 
are barely perceptible, before an open flower, with its long 
needle-like bill protruding to its base, extracting the deli- 
cious nectar. 

It is a brave little warrior, and care must be taken that 
it does not injure one’s eyes, as instances are known of its 
piercing a person’s face, when the latter tried to examine 
the beautiful little nests, ornamented with lichens, and con- 
taining two white eggs the size of peas. 

The most numerous order of birds is the Passeres, or 
Perching Birds. It includes many families from the tiny 
Wren to the great Northern Raven, twenty-five inches long. 
It includes all of the warblers, sparrows, jays, as well as 
numerous other families. 

One of the most interesting is the Kingbird. They are 
fly-catchers, and are absolutely fearless, fearing nothing in 


290 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


the feathered line. They are very noisy and quarrelsome. 
Their special enemy seems to be the crow. It is a common 
sight in crow country to see kingbirds pursuing crows, 
and to hear the crows squawk when an unusually vigorous 
dig draws blood and takes out one or more feathers. 

The Phoebe is still a common resident here, and is well 
known. ‘The usual cry, “Phoebe,” is often heard. It evi- 
dently likes to nest under a bridge, or similar locality, espe- 
cially over a stream, as insects are frequent there. 

The Wood Pewee is a common resident here, and is like 
a smaller, refined edition of the phoebe, with whom it is 
often confounded. Its cry is a sad, plaintive pe-a-wee,— 
pee-wee—much different from the rough cry of the phoebe. 
The pewee prefers to live in high dry woods, and it builds 
a most beautiful little nest of fine plant fibers carefully 
woven together; over this is placed beautiful lichens, so 
that it resembles a large humming bird’s nest. 

Among the Crow family are the Ravens, Crows, Jays 
and Magpies, all of which frequented this region in earlier 
times. The American Magpie was formerly a visitor here, 
according to Kennicott, who states that it and its cousin, 
the Blue Jay, who is one of the same sort, are seldom 
found together in the same place. No one place is large 
enough for two such noisy quarrelsome birds. 

The Blue Jay is very bold, noisy and beautiful, and 
despite its many bad qualities gives a charm to the land- 
scape. It is a thief, murderer and cannibal, as it will steal 
and eat eggs from other birds, and has been frequently seen 
to kill and eat young birds. It has a raucous, unpleasant 
call, something like that of a woodpecker and also like that 
of its cousin, the ubiquitous crow. 


BIRDS 291 


The Crow is preeminently the bird of the country; a 
born thief and schemer, and brainy withal! Who that 
knows crows has not some admiration for this rascal, even 
while he is exasperated at his thievery. There are many 
in the Dunes. Formerly there was an immense crows’ 
headquarters of thousands at the Big Pines. 

The farmer may be compelled to replant his corn several 
times, because these canny critters will be out at work at 
three o’clock in the morning in flocks, and quickly dig up 
and devour the grain that the hard-working farmer has 
planted the day before, and who did not know that soaking 
his corn in kerosene or liquid tar makes it so distasteful 
to the crow that he will seldom eat it; it does not hurt 
the corn. The farmer, in desperation, may pack a gun with 
him that day, but never a crow can be seen, except at a 
distance. If he leaves his gun at home, these unusually 
keen-eyed birds see that things look normal again and decide 
to take a chance, and remain to see where the new feeding- 
ground is to be planted. Righteous retribution. Crow 
squab, under the name of Italian Woodcock, is now being 
tried in some Chicago restaurants. It is said to be good. 

Sometimes the crow has been seen to catch and eat little 
chickens, and to go into the henhouse and suck the eggs. 
This has been told the author in a number of cases. Miss 
Catherine Siewers, of Chicago, while motoring near 
Hobart, Indiana, in May, 1921, saw a big crow deliberately 
swoop down on a flock of little chicks, seize one in its bill, 
and fly away with it. Most of these flesh-eating crows seem 
to be in Indiana. Why? Colonel Moorhead and Senator 
Buchanan, of the Indiana State Senate, say they have seen 


292 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


crows catch and eat baby chickens and also go into hen- 
houses and eat eggs. 

The crow is not only cunning; he shows actual reasoning, 
as every observer of crow life has noted. The most strik- 
ing case of such reasoning that I know of happened at 
Forest Lake, Wisconsin, many years ago. While sitting 
one spring day on the porch of my cottage with Professor 
John H. Loomis, of Chicago, viewing the little lake from 
the top of a high hill, we saw three crows fly to a small 
knoll near the lake. As the trees were not yet in leaf, we 
had an excellent view from behind the screens. ‘The largest 
one had the other two stand in a cleared place, apparently 
watching them. ‘To our amazement, the two birds sprang 
forward, and fought bitterly, the feathers flying, while the 
big one circled around, looking at them. 

It seemed a regular duel, with the big one as the referee. 
After a while the smaller bird began to scream in a most 
awful manner, much like a rooster that is suddenly seized, 
only louder, and more raucous, and with a long drawn-out 
scream that was peculiarly agonizing. After hearing this 
for a short time, the big crow stepped forward and punished 
the other crow, by pecking him vigorously. They again 
went ahead, fighting viciously, with feathers flying from 
both birds. Soon the larger crow must have hit the smaller 
one below the belt again, for the latter suddenly set up 
another agonized howl that was even worse than the first. 

At this the referee stepped forward and gave the 
aggressor an unmerciful drubbing, the feathers flying in all 
directions. When he thought that the culprit had been 
sufficiently punished, he stepped back, and they tried it 
again for several minutes, fighting furiously; then, the 


BIRDS 293 


smaller found he could not stand the gaff and suddenly 
flew off around the big hill, with his antagonist and the 
referee in hot pursuit. 

A short time after, a crow came slowly winging its way 
to a hickory tree on this same little knoll, and spent a long 
time preening his feathers, and undoubtedly licking his 
wounds, which, owing to his savage fight, must have been 
deep and numerous. 

I had seen and studied crows—thousands of them—as 
a boy, in the Westchester hills near New York City, and 
also many thousands more in different states. My relatives 
for many generations had lived in crow country. I never 
before had seen or heard anything like this. My amaze- 
ment, however, was as nothing compared with that of 
Professor Loomis. He had been brought up in Michigan as 
a boy; had been intimate with Chief Simon Pokagon, of 
the Pottawottomie Indians; had lived with these Indians 
for months at a time; was also of old Colonial stock; but 
he said that he had never heard of such reasoning by crows; 
and the Indians, who are so full of such wonderful folk- 
_ tales of beast and bird, never spoke of any such doings while 
training him in their folk lore about the crows and other 
birds and animals. They considered the crow and the fox 
the most cunning of all creatures. 

This duel of the crows occurred exactly as recorded, and 
for years was so described by both Professor Loomis and 
the author, two observers, trained to study nature very 
closely. There is no “nature fake’ about it. Two explana- 
tions have been given by naturalists, farmers and nature 
lovers in general. First, it may have been a regular duel 
of two males, with an experienced male to act as referee. 


294. THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


Second, the duel may have been fought to get possession of 
the third crow, who may: have been a female; the winner 
to take the female, as is the usual custom in all animal life. 
What is your opinion? 

The Northern Raven, the big cousin of the crow, is an 
occasional visitor in the Chicago Dune region. One was 
seen near Waverly Beach in the summer of 1919. 

The Bobolink is one of our favorite song birds, being 
found chiefly in the prairies and meadows. Its music is 
sweet and rippling and its caroling as it flutters down from 
on high is one of ecstatic joy. When fall comes, it migrates 
toward the South, dropping its gay plumage; it is called 
the Reed Bird in the great swamps of the South and Rice 
Bird where that is found or cultivated. It winters in South 
America. 

The Blackbirds are still found in great numbers in the - 
Dunes, the Red-winged or Soldier Blackbird especially. 
The Yellow-Headed Blackbird once nested in vast numbers 
in the Calumet and Dune marshes, but is now very rare. 
In fact, in most localities it has disappeared. 

The Meadow Lark, with its striped coat of brown and 
gray, and its yellow breast, is a familiar friend. Its flute- 
like whistle as it sings from the grass, fence or tree is most 
cheerful. It is a harbinger of real spring. 

One of the rarest and most interesting birds that visit 
our Chicago Dune region is the Mocking Bird. Mr. Coale 
saw one in Chicago in 1876. Doctor J. Hancock, notified 
Doctor Woodruff that he saw a mocking bird in splendid 
plumage in the south end of South Park in April, 1902. 
As the weather was quite warm at that time, it undoubtedly 
attracted the mocking bird. 


BIRDS 295 


In May, 1905, Doctors Frank Woodruff and Frank C. 
Baker observed a pair of mocking birds in the line of 
thickets just east of the first ridge of dunes at Miller, 
Indiana, but did not disturb them, hoping that they might 
nest and breed there. 

In June, 1876, I was botanizing in some low woods near 
Wentworth Avenue and Seventy-first Street, Chicago. 
While sitting under a tree, whistling, and looking over my 
plants, | heard a bird in a tree about fifty feet away singing 
very melodiously and using a great variety of tones, among 
them some of the strains I was whistling. It sounded like 
a mocking bird, but owing to its extreme rarity, that did 
not seem possible. As it was hid by the leaves, its identity 
could not be determined. 

I continued to whistle, giving a little at a time, and the 
bird responded with the same tune. After a short time, 
in which the strain was lengthened to a full line, the bird 
became so interested that it flew to a tree about twenty- 
five feet away, and perched on a branch in plain sight. It 
was a genuine mocking bird, with ashy-brown back, whitish 
breast, large whitish patches on its wings, and black legs 
and bill. 

It was very much excited and was determined to outsing 
its rival and for about an hour it gave one of the most 
delightful musical treats ever presented. After whistling 
something for it, the mocking bird would repeat it with 
variations that were fascinating, besides giving imitations 
of the songs of other birds. It was enchanting, and the 
sight of the songster, filled with enthusiasm, pouring out 
such brilliant melody was most inspiring. Unfortunately, 
after he had been at it for nearly an hour, some one came 


296 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


through the woods near the place, and startled the mock- 
ing bird, who flew away. 

It has been occasionally seen not only at Miller, but 
also at other parts of the Dunes, which with its southern 
trees and plants, and sheltered glens, offers a splendid and 
congenial place for the mocking bird. 

One of the most sociable and interesting families is that 
of the Wrens, ranging from the friendly little House Wren 
to the larger Carolina Wren. The saucy little house wren, 
with its familiar habit of calling at the house and selecting 
a nice convenient place in which to build its nest, is familiar 
to all of us. His trust, self-confidence, yes, nerve, have 
made him a member of the household of every farm-house, 
and many homes in the town and city. It is still found 
in our region, but in greatly diminished numbers, and seems 
to be the Western House Wren. 

But the rarest, and, next to the house wren, the most 
interesting, is the Carolina Wren; often called the Mock- 
ing Wren. This is the largest of the wrens, from five and 
a half to six inches long. It is noted for its loud, cheerful 
whistle, which, according to Ridgway, in The Birds of 
Illinois, can be heard for a half-mile. Butler, in his Birds 
of Indiana, says he has heard it for over a quarter of a mile. 
It is common in Southern Indiana, but very rare indeed 
in Northern Indiana. Mrs. John V. Farwell says that she 
heard one at Lake Forest in I9g00, and it sounded like 
cher-o-kee, and could be heard for a quarter-mile. 

The author found one at Tremont, Indiana, in June, 1917, 
the first time it was recorded in the Dunes, while coming 
from the Dunes on to the Valparaiso Road. A loud musical 
song was heard from some distance toward the south, and 


BIRDS 297 


it had the sound of the robin’s song, as is mentioned by 
Ridgway and also by Dayton, and just as I have heard it 
at Forest Lake, Wisconsin. The notes kept getting louder 
and louder, with a rich, clear whistle, until the bird was 
located on the electric wire in front of the station at Tre- 
mont, on the South Shore Electric Railroad. 

He was very tame and kept up his song for fifteen min- 
utes, resting every little while. He had several styles, 
pretty well described by Doctor Butler, but the chief one 
was cher-o-wee! given in a loud cheery tone that was heard 
nearly a half-mile away. My presence not more than 
twenty feet away did not disturb it in the least. It gave an 
even longer entertainment the next day. It had a nest near 
there which was discovered under the milk platform by Miss 
Frieda Janssen of the Prairie Club, and it was not afraid 
of visitors, entertaining them while his wife kept house. 

This bird, with its loud tone and confident air, acted as 
if it were a direct descendant of that original wren that 
claimed the title of “King of Birds.’’ This story is one of 
the old, interesting Teutonic folk stories, and was told me 
by a very intelligent Hollander, Mr. Cornelius Kuyper, of 
Roseland, Chicago, near Pullman, who was a great author- 
ity on the old Teutonic Myths, and a very keen observer of 
plant and animal life. 

The birds quarreled so greatly as to who should be king 
that a convention of all the birds was called. The eagle 
claimed the title as he was the strongest and fiercest. After 
several methods of selecting the king were discussed, it was 
finally decided that the bird who flew the highest should 
be chosen king. All of the birds tried, but it finally nar- 
rowed down to the eagle and the hawk. 


298 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


At last the eagle was victorious, and soared above in 
triumph, screaming that he was king, as he had beaten all 
the other birds. Suddenly, to his surprise, he heard a voice 
say “No, you’re not; I can beat you!” and up from his 
shoulders, where he had been hiding, sprang a tiny wren, 
who flew high above the eagle, and caroled in a very loud 
ringing voice, “I am the King! I have flown the highest! 
I am the King!” 

The eagle was so enraged at this treachery, that he tried 
to catch the wren, but failed. Some of the other birds 
heard the boast of the tiny wren, and soon it became known 
to them all; they became so indignant that they pursued and 
tried to kill it. It was too lively for them, but was finally 
surrounded in a wood, and was compelled to crawl into a 
tiny knot-hole for safety. 

To make sure that it would not escape, they selected the 
owl, on account of his large eyes, and told him, on peril 
of his life, to keep good watch, and not let the wren escape. 
They then voted and elected the eagle as King of the Birds. 

As it was then dusk the owl kept an excellent watch over 
the wren, and also during the long dark night. When morn- 
ing came, with its bright light, the owl was dazed and was 
unable to see clearly. The lively little wren, taking ad- 
vantage of this, quickly escaped. It was soon found out 
by the other birds, and they hurried to the place where the 
owl was, reviled and even attacked him bitterly for what 
they called his gross carelessness in allowing the wren to 
escape. 

Since that time the birds have inherited that same an- 
tipathy to the owl, especially the barred owl, for his negli- 
gence in allowing the wren to escape in those days; and 


BIRDS 299 


whenever the owl ventures out in the daytime, the other 
birds in the neighborhood gather around him, deride and 
attack him, making the feathers fly, and making his life 
miserable. The wren, who was the real culprit, does not 
seem to have been molested, while the poor warder seems to 
have received all the blame. 

This kind of judgment does not seem to be confined to 
birds! 

The Brown Thrasher, or Brown Thrush, as it is com- 
monly called by the people of the country-side, is a large 
bird, with a long tail. It is a bright reddish-brown, with 
white breast, ornamented with lines of black spots extending 
up and down its sides. It is also called the French Mocking 
Bird, as its song is so full and musical that some people 
prefer it to that of the true mocking bird. It is not a mimic, 
but has polished and rounded out its own song until it is 
a joy to the ear, and is somewhat similar to the musical 
song of the catbird. 

The Indigo Bunting, a small blue bird, is a common 
summer resident here. It is a sweet songster; the male 
puts in a great part of its time singing, the tones resembling 
those of a canary. It is a small, dainty, real Blue Bird. 

The Scarlet Tanager is a common summer resident, 
breeding in our region. It is a gorgeous bird, the male being 
bright scarlet, with black wings and tail. It is not quite so 
large as the Cardinal. The Summer Tanager, often called 
the Redbird, on account of its rosy red plumage, is also 
found in our district. Its song is sweeter than that of the 
scarlet tanager. 

The Song Sparrow is a common resident and is noted for 
its pleasing song. It is probably the best known and liked 


300 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


of all the sparrows. The Fox Sparrow is a common mig- 
rant; is rather large and attractive. The Towhee or Che- 
wink is also rather large for a sparrow, and resembles a 
robin. 

The Cardinal is a most beautiful bird, with bright red 
plumage, striking red crest and large bill, like that of its 
cousin, the grosbeak. It is a very fine singer, and this, 
combined with its splendid plumage, and amiable nature, 
makes it one of the favorite song birds of the country. It 
is also a great insect eater. It is a southern bird, but comes 
north to Canada. They are found sometimes in the winter 
in Duneland, where they are sheltered by the dunes and 
pine forests, finding plenty of food, such as all kinds of 
berries, seeds, etc. This makes them all-the-year residents. 
Some were found at Tremont during the cold, snowy winter 
of 1920. There are many of them in the spring at Tre- 
mont. ‘Their song is loud and cheery. The song of one 
male as studied carefully in 1919 sounded greaily like “Beat 
it! Beat it! Beat it!’ She did not, however. 

The Rose-breasted Grosbeak, a cousin of the cardinal, is 
a most beautiful bird, with its black and white regalia, orna- 
mented with rose on breast and wings; unlike the cardinal, 
it has not a crest. It has almost as charming a song as 
the cardinal. 

One of the prettiest, most musical and most beneficial of 
all our families of birds is the Warblers. They embrace 
many songsters and live largely on insects. They can be 
seen and heard everywhere, but especially in the woods and 
underbrush. The most beautiful of all is the Blackburnian, 
with its crown, sides of head, its throat and its breast in- 
tense reddish orange, ornamented with black and white 


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BIRDS 301 


stripes. It does not appear to nest in the Dunes, but I have 
found it nesting at Forest Lake, Wisconsin, south of Fond 
du Lac, in July. 

The Yellow Warbler is also known as the Summer Yel- 
low Bird. It wears a yellow suit, striped on the sides with 
reddish-brown, and is a welcome visitor in gardens and 
orchards. The Prothonotary Warbler is a striking little 
bird, with its whole head and breast a vivid orange yellow, 
and its back yellowish olive. In fact, all of the warblers 
are pretty with different markings, and very interesting. 

The Redstart or Redtail, as the name signifies, is a most 
beautiful bird, with its black and red uniform, the six large 
red spots on tail and wings being very vivid. About 1880 
a very large wave of them emigrated here in the Chicago 
Dune region from the South. Since then they are much 
more common than before. 

One of the prettiest and most interesting birds found in 
our region is the Oriole, both the Orchard and the Balti- 
more Oriole. The Orchard Oriole has a chestnut and 
black suit and is much rarer than the Baltimore, nesting 
occasionally around the orchards. The Baltimore oriole, 
which has a livery of orange and black, the colors of Lord 
Baltimore, is a common summer resident, and like its cousin, 
the orchard oriole, is fond of mankind, building nests near 
the house. | 

While the nest of the orchard oriole is a beautiful cup- 
shaped one, placed between the forks of a branch, that of 
the Baltimore oriole is a hanging one like a pocket, swinging 
from a supporting limb, and is often ornamented with pieces 
of colored yarn or fine ribbon that are given them. 

Of all the birds that are found in the Dunes one of the 


302 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


smartest-looking 1s the Tufted Titmouse or Sugar Bird, as 
it is commonly called, because it is found so frequently 
around the sugar camps in the spring. It is a cousin of 
the Chickadee, but larger, and also gives a “de-de-dee,”’ be- 
sides a clear whistle, like Peter-Peter; is sometimes called 
the Peter Bird. It is ashy above, whitish below, with 
brownish sides, blending together beautifully. The head 
has a conspicuous flattish crest, and black forehead. This 
gives it a particularly smart, trig appearance. When perched 
upright, it seems like a soldier standing at attention. 

In December, 1918, the author saw a flock of two dozen 
of them at Tremont, near the Hermitage, and studied them 
for fifteen minutes. At times they seemed as if on parade, 
they were so erect and soldierly. Reed’s picture of them in 
his book on birds is very life-like. 

The Catbird, which is sometimes called the English Mock- 
ing Bird, is an abundant summer resident of the Dunes as 
well as the Chicago region, arriving the last of April and 
departing early in October. It has a dark-gray suit orna- 
mented with a black cap and a chestnut red patch at the 
base of its tail. It is found all over the United States and 
is popular for its beautiful song, its repeated mews like a 
cat and its sociable ways. It will follow one through the 
woods for some distance, mewing and calling, generally at 
nesting time, trying to scare off a dangerous intruder. 

Mr. Andrew Diekman, of Dolton, ear Thornton, Illinois, 
states that about 1900 a pair of catbirds built a nest among 
some thorn trees about five blocks from his house near 
Thorn Creek, in a beautiful region of the Tolleston Ridge, 
near the Indiana Dunes. One day, while going to visit the 
nest, he observed the two birds carrying something. On 


BIRDS 303 


going nearer, he saw it was a small snake about fifteen 
inches long. One bird had it by the head and the other by 
the tail, using teamwork to carry it. It had been so badly 
pecked it was helpless. When they reached the thorn tree, 
where their nest was, to the amazement of Mr. Diekman, 
they began to fasten the snake to one of the sharp thorns. 

The bird that had the snake by the head placed its neck 
against a sharp thorn and pulled it strongly and the bird 
holding the tail also pulled; in spite of its struggles they 
succeeded in crucifying the snake, so that the thorn went 
completely through it, making a more thorough job than 
even the Butcher Bird does. It was a remarkable exhibition. 

A day or two later Mr. Diekman told a friend about it, 
Doctor Doepp, who was an old settler and also a keen 
naturalist, and he scoffed at such a story. On being invited 
to see the snake hanging up, they went to the thorn tree, 
when they surprised the birds bringing home another snake, 
using similar teamwork, one at the head and the other 
holding the snake near the tail. They put the neck of the 
snake, just back of the head, against the sharp thorn, and 
by pushing and pulling succeeded in impaling the snake. 
The doctor was amazed, and said he had never seen the like 
before; but, as he had now seen this wonderful feat per- 
formed, he was convinced. 

Mr. Diekman said that these catbirds were tireless snake 
hunters, and during their nesting season had captured and 
crucified eleven snakes on the thorn tree on which their nest 
was situated. Question: 1. Were these snakes hung up there 
for food, as is often the case of the Butcher Bird? 2. From 
natural enmity? 3. Or were they put up there to scare 
the other snakes from the vicinity of the nest? The occur- 


304. THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


rence was an actual fact. Mr. Diekman was a teacher and 
is a trained observer. He is the historian of that region. 

The Blue Gray Gnatcatcher, also called the Blue Wren, 
is a little bird that visits us during the spring from the last 
of April to the last of May, returning in the fall from the 
middle of August to the middle of September. It is a 
wonderful insect catcher. Its nest is made up of fibers, 
cobwebs and fine wool, and, like those of the humming bird 
and pewee, is adorned with handsome lichens, forming a 
nest that is said by some artists to be even more beautiful 
than that of the humming bird. 

The Thrushes form a family of birds that are both beau- 
tiful and musical. Of these the Wood Thrush and Hermit 
Thrush are the most musical. The wood thrush is the larg- 
est of the tree thrushes and its tones are very rich and flute- 
like. The hermit thrush is smaller than the wood thrush 
and is considered a remarkable musician. Its song is much 
like that of the wood thrush, but more varied and not 
so powerful. _ | 

The American Robin is familiar to everybody and is 
probably the most popular bird in the country. Its bright 
reddish-brown breast made it look so home-like to the 
Pilgrims that they called it Robin Red Breast in honor of 
the English Red Breast. 

The Blue Bird, with the upper parts of its body blue, and 
throat and upper breast brownish-red, looks as it were a 
cross between the indigo bird and the robin. It is a very 
cheerful and sociable bird, living in holes of trees and 
fence posts; in orchards, or about barns or buildings. It 
has a pleasant musical song. It is a harbinger of spring, 
and is considered the favorite bird of the country children, 


BIRDS 305 


as the robin is of the city children. The blue bird seems 
to be decreasing in numbers. : 

For the protection of birds, and also for ourselves, cats 
should be brought under control, as they kill the birds that 
otherwise would devour the insects that now devour our 
crops, and thus harm us. These pests can be brought under 
control in the town and cities by levying a tax upon them 
just as we now do with dogs. If the cat is a fine one, and 
there are many such, it is worth paying a tax for it; if not, 
and the great majority of cats are not worth it, they should 
be eliminated as soon as possible, as they kill more birds in 
cities and towns than all other causes put together. 

Many bird lovers, especially those of the Prairie Club and 
Audubon Society have kept records of the birds found in 
the Dunes with date of arrival, description, etc. The fol- 
lowing list, which gives many of the leading birds, has been 
compiled by Mrs. Gertrude S. Walker, a member of both 
the Prairie Club and the Audubon Society, with the assist- 
ance of other observers: 


S. R.—Summer Resident. W. R.—Winter Resident. A, Y.—AIll Year. 
Approximate 
Bird Arrival Size Description 
Bittern, American ...... April 25, 30 238 ” Yellowish brown; long legs. 
ithe PHCASt \'s\. «s.« «/s's April 25, 30 14 ” Yellowish brown; long legs. 
Blackbird, Red-Winged, 
ety) Ee OP Aaa a Sa eralen=’ © March 20, 20 93” Black; red spots on wings. 
Blackbird, Yellowish- 
HER CEC eam ite! aie sie, a's! March 1, 20 10%” Body black; head and chest yel- 
low. 
EMG DEG Sa Wes csi ls: 0's 1 March 1, 20 64” Blue; chestnut spot below. 
EGON Ris vs sc) s 606 April 1, 20 74” Black below. Yellow and _ white 
above. 
Bunting, Indigo, S. R...May LO 52” Indigo blue; wings and tail black- 
ish. 
Bunting, Snow, S. R.... Winter rare 7” White; yellowish on wings and 


tail. 


306 


S. R.—Summer Resident. W. 
Approximate 
Bird Arrival Size 
Buzzard, Turkey, S. R., 
Woodruff-Green ...... Very rare 380 7 
Cardinal A. Y.........eApril-November 8 ” 


Catbird, Ss. Re eeoc5aeeee May 143 10 8-9 uA 


Chewink. ScaRe sie oe SDT LO, LO 83” 
Chickadee—Black 

Car KWAbR Wises dae g 53 ” 
Chickadee, Hudsonian ...Very rare 

Mrs. Walker Syalle Sieh Leh 
Chat, Yellow breasted. .May ae 13 73” 
Chuck-wills-Widow ..... Very rare iby yy 

(Found at Tremont by 

G. A. Brennan. First 

time recorded north of 

Indianapolis. ) June 19, 1919 


Cowbirdy asa eval cule o March 10, 20 Si 
Creeper, Brown, S. R...‘April 1, 10, 6 7 
Coot or Mud Hen, S. R.May, June, July 15 ” 


Orow, AD oss civeds oe March 1, 15 19 ” 
Crow, Carrion S., Visi- 
tor (Black Vulture) 
very rare 
Woodruff-Green 


Crane, Sandhill, 


24 ” 
S. R. 


very rare—Woodruff..June, 1919 AAR 
Cross-bill, American 

Winter visitor....... 6” 
Cuckoo, Black-billed, 

Re Me, Pater: May 10, 20 12” 
Cuckoo, Yellow-billed, 

Sy RO eae cicces etstelabelets aay LO, 20 el? 
Dickcissel’ FAMON y foes ek 63” 
Dove, Mourning, S. R...May Ths Sey mle te 


Duck, Amer. Merganser, 
Canvasback—Wood 
Duck, Mallard, S. R. 


we Marechal 0-20 seo 32 


April 22-29 


. Pintail—Teal, Red- 

heads foteisiees whavevela oLeis March 10, 20 24 ” 
Eagle, Bald, A. Y.— 

Rare now. Woodruff 

—Atwood ........ ane long, 34-43 ” 


spread, 90 ” 


R.—Winter Resident. 


THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


A. Y.—All Year. 


Description 


Chestnut-brown. Head red, naked. 
Bright red with blunt bill. Top- 
knot. 
Slate gray; 

tail. 
Black above; reddish-brown sides. 


Chestnut patch under 


Ashy gray; black throat and cap. 


Crown and back brownish. 

Above olive green; below bright 
yellow. 

Mottled rusty red, black and white, 
large mouth extending back Of eye. 


Dull brownish-black. 

Brown; streaked with white. 
Color, slaty; toes with flaps. 
Black. 


Black head naked; black. 
Gray. Top of head naked; red. 
Body red; wings black. 


Bill crossed to pick out pine seeds. 
Olive gray; white below; bill black. 


Olive gray; white below; lower bill 
yellow. 


Yellow, white, gray; black throat 
patch. 
Above fawn; below pinkish. 


Head dark green, back black; wings 
white with black band. 

Head green, white collar; black and 
brown. 


Blackish-brown, Head and tail white. 


BIRDS 


S. R.—Summer Resident. 


Approximate 
Bird Arrival 
Finch, Purple ictee site ADIL Ee a0 
IC Ker meee icleis cic e's ele ADIil 10520 
Flycatcher, Great 


CresteGsus.ol..c.e oes April 10 
Flycatcher, Acadian, 


SEA? Aa LS AP 
Flycatcher, Least, S. 

Ie Ae a -April 20, 30 
Flycatcher, Blue Gray, 

BPMN sis ses sexe s.eeApril 20, 30 
Goldfinch, Amer., S. R.. May ae oa Ws 


Goose, Canada, A. Y. March 14-Nov. 


April 27 
Grackle, Bronzed, S. R. March 15, 25 
Grebe, Pied, S. R..... May 2, 


June-April 27, 
Grosbeak, Evening, W. 


RELATING) nig ws 0 0-0 7- 


Grosbeak, Pine, W. R. 
a ICHT OM elses ce ele eis ¢ 

Grosbeak- Rose-breasted, May aye cake 
aan Funhouse 

Grouse, Sharp-tailed 
(Discovered and identi- 
fied by G. A. Brennan. 
First time recorded in 
Indiana; also seen by 
W oodford, Robinson, 
Steward, Ormes, Leeg- 
water and Leonard.) 
Very rare. 


eevee eeee 


April, Sept. 
1915 


Grouse, Ruffed, S. R.... March-April, 
September 


Gull, Herring, A. Y..... 

Hawk, Red-shouldered, 

Hawk Red-tailed, S. R.. 

Hawk, Sparrow, S. R....March 20, 


30 10”-11 


Heron, Little Blue, S. R. 


W. R.—wWinter Resident. 


82” Olive; 


54” Brown 


38 ” 
13 ” Bronze; blue-green head. 
133” Brownish-black. 


24”-25 


307 


A, Y.—dAIl Year. 


Size Description 
63” Streaked purplish-brown 


above; 
lighter below. 


123” Black crescent on cinnamon breast; 


red spot on head. 


cinnamon tail and 

feathers; yellowish below. 

crest; throat and _ breast 
white; green and yellow tinge; 
blue and white wings. 

3” Olive gray; two wing bars. 


wing 


43” Blue gray white below. 
534” Yellow black crown, tail and wings. 


Grayish brown; black neck; white 
throat. 


Whitish 
white bill, black ring. 


breast; 


” Large bill; dusky olive; with some 
yellow and black. 

” Slate gray, washed with dull rose- 
red. 


83” Black and white; rose red spot on 


breast. 


” Tail long, pointed; yellowish brown; 
sprinkled with black below. 


” Reddish brown; spotted, crested 
and ruffed. 
” Gray above; white below. 
” Above reddish brown; below buff 
; streaked. 


” Above dark brown; below whitish. 
Wide spreading tail, rusty red. 

” Brown, barred with reddish brown. 

” Dark slaty blue. 


308 


S. R.—Summer Resident. 


Approximate 
Bird Arrival 
Heron, Great Blue, S. R. 
Humming Bird, Ruby- 
throated, S. R.......May 
Jaeger, Pomarine— 


Size 
42 ” 


19, 22 33” 


Very rare, Woodruff. .October. 
Lark, Prairie-horned, 
Soar Re atbieeie aie siete co cies Larch 120 (eS 


Lark, Meadow, S. R.....March 25 103” 


JAY oth IME AH Movi telnet i is Weak 
Jonco, 8. Ba Gade aks Mare tye oe. 
Kildeerte Sai Racscrersis eteiers We 
Kine pind ass mtv etc ets . May TSE O Suz 
Kingfisher, (Ss Ries «<i eters 2 April 20, 

30 13-14 ” 
Kinglet, Golden-crowned. March 9 ZW ites 
Kinglet, Ruby-throated ..March 11 43” 
Loon, Great Northern, 

Snag aice a ieie afaroteiense June-July 385%-31 ” 
Martin, Purple, S. R.... June-July ve tad 
Nighthawk, S. R........June-Aug. 9”-10 ” 
Mocking Bird, S. R. 

(Very rare; Wood- 

ruff, Atwood, Brennan) May 1034” 
Nuthatch, Red-breasted, 

rare; Mrs. Walker, 

Woodruff and Brennan. 43” 
Nuthatch, White-breast- 

LS OT Ae Slat ahs eis .... June-July 5%-6:% 
Oriole, Baltimore, S. R..May 1, 10 fey hie 
Oriole, Orchard, S. R...May 1 vp i 
Ovenbird ) SU Wigicie es tele Meas aL. Oe H6) 7 
Owl, Great-horned, S. R..March 10 107-23 ” 
Owl Hoot or Barred 

Owl i Sib Ra eters ivircens 2057 
Owly Barn; oS.iy es sisi slats 1827 


Owl, Screech, S. R.....March 10, 20, 8”-10” 


Owl, Snowy W. Vis.....Nov.-Dec. 
Rare. Woodruff, Drury.Jan., 1918 


A Deed 


W. R.—wWinter Resident. 


THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


A. Y.—aAll Year. 


Description 
Slaty blue above; blackish below. 


Green, purple; ruby throat. 
Sooty slate-brown; central 
feathers large. 


tail 


Brown and buff; white and black 
about head. 

Upper, brown and black; yellow be- 
low, with black crest on chest. 

Blue; white and black collar. 

Slate colored, white tail feathers. 

Brown back; white breast, red tail; 
white throat. 

Dusty black, white band on tail.- 


Ashy blue, 
head. 

Olive; golden crowned. 

Olive; ruby crowned wing bars. 


white. collar, crest on 


White, black above; whitish below; 
white ring around neck. 

Blue black. 

Rusty black; 
spots. 

Gray and white. : 

Stone gray; dull reddish breast. 


white and brown 


Stone gray; white breast. 
Orange and black. 

Chestnut and black. 
Orange, brown cap; olive 
thickly spotted breast. 
Long ear tufts, tawny brown and 

white. : 


above, 


Brown and white spotted. 
Mottled gray; buff streaked with 
black. 
Conspicuous 
black. 
White; spotted with blackish. 


ear _ tufts; 


grayish 


S. R.—Summer Resident. 


BIRDS 


W. R.—Winter Resident. 


Approximate 
Bird Arrival Size 
Pelican, White—rare; 

Martin, fall visitor... 

Pewee, Wood, S. R.....May 1,10 63” 
Phalarope, Wilson’s, 

PSM TROUT eT Mele p so rele 4 le) «i's oi 
Plover, Belted—very 

rare—Woodruff ...... June 
IOVer GOIOCR 5. elses .-May 
PHOGD es Ut testes «) 4:0 ic eretete MUAY, 1 67-0700 
PeSU MITE IOIA! . 6 «hoo. 6 Mayet 4 8-1 OU 
Quail, Virginia, Bob 

White, A. Y. .......May-June Oe! 
Redstart, American, 

POMEIME MN ear usta le. 3 tas 3 o/a'0 April 20, 30 5 =” 
Redpore Wi Bei o..'s, » Pettis 52” 
POU Seen sicie|s sie ss ettarch 10, 20: 10.” 
Sandpiper, Least, S. R...March 1, 10 53” 
Sandpiper, Spotted ....May 1 e10 72” 
Shrike, Loggerhead,: March 20, 30 93” 

oy OENS DASA AER eae ; 
Shrike, Northern, 

W.R., rare, Woodruff.. LOW? 
Sapsucker, Yellow-bel- 

tedwen <5) « ‘als Hb Ainakcae ADVI alow O 32% 
Snipe, Jack ..... cleteis A DTI 103” 
Sparrow, Chipping, 

Sp LS 2 Ae ee aero Aprile i210 Bae 
Sparrow, Grasshopper, 

Si ULL ney aichele oe APTA 54” 
Sparrow, Field, S. R.....March 10, 20 53” 
Sparrow, Fox, S. R. ...April Leora” 
Sparrow Song, S. R. ...March 20, 30 63” 


309 
A, Y.—All Year. 


Description 


Dark brown, two white wings bare. 


Gray back; white breast. Female 
has a broad chestnut band on 
body; male has no bright color. 


Dull olive brown, whitish below. 

Above brown; below reddish; streak- 
ed; long pill. 

Brown, white, 


mottled; striped. 


Black, orange, white; six 
orange red spots. 

Gray and white above. Red crown- 
ed; male with rosy breast. 

Dark gray reddish breast; 
b'ackish. 

Dark brown above, neck spotted. 

Above grayish; below dotted with 
black, 

Black line on each side 
Tail and wings black. 


large 


head 


of head. 


More brownish than the Loggerhead 
Shrike. Larger. 


Black and white; red on crown and 
throat. 


Black crown, black, white and 
chestnut. 
Ashy breast; chestnut-brown cap; 


two white winged bars. 


Brown and gray bars. Crown black- 
ish with a central buffy stripe. 
Breast buffy. 

Reddish brown cap; ashy color. 

Fox red; white breast; dark spots; 
reddish-brown tail. 

Dark spots middle of breast; 
dish brown above. 


red- 


310 


S. R.—Summer Resident. 


Approximate 
Arrival 
-«sMareh 20; 30 


Bird 
Sparrow, Tree, S. R. 


Sparrow, White, S. R., 


crowned Siisiciste ps cers MOT en O.moO 


Sparrow, White-throat- 


00, 64) Rim arcke 4-5 eyersiete's March 20, 30 
Sparrow, Vesper, S. R... April iy ay) 
Swallow, Bank, S. R.....April 20, 30 
Swallow Barn, S. R. ..April 10, 20 
Swallow, Tree ..... ---March 20 
Swan, Whistling, rare...Nov. 16, 1918 
Swift, Chimney, S. R.....April 15 
Tanager, Scarlet, S. R...May 1 
Tanager, Summer, S. R..May-June 
Tern, Common, A. Y.... 

Tern-Caspian, Fall, 

Woodruff, very rare...October 
Thrasher, Brown, S. R...April 1 
Thrush» Hermit. icles st ADIiL ZO 
Thrush, Olive-back ..... May 1 
Thrush, Wilson’s ......May 5 
Thrush, Wood, S. R. ....May 1 
Thrush WV ALCL etscit aloes April 25, 30 
Titmouse, Tufted, rare, 

W. Vis Woodruff 

Walter, Brennan .....December 
Vireo, Red-eyed, S. R....May 1 
Vireo, Warbling, S. R...May 1 
Warbler, Bay-breasted ..May aaa 8 
Warbler, Blackburnian .. May LO 
Warbler, Black and 

Wihiter Sia Rocutabtere ac April Peo 


W. R.—wWinter Resident. 


1a? 


113” 


THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


A, Y.—AIl Year. 


Size 
64” 


Description 
Two white wing bars; reddish brown 
cap; breast whitish. 
7 ” Ashy gray; crown white; two white 
wing bars. 


if u 


14 
62 


White throat; crown black and white. 

Upper parts grayish-brown, steaked 
with black. Outer tail feathers 
white. 

Dark band on light throat. 

Forked tail; blue-black white below. 

Metallic blue-green; white below. 

White. 

Bobbed tail with short points; long 
pointed wings, gray. 

Bright red, with black wings. 

Chestnut red. 

Top of head black; black gray; un- 
der part white. 


53” 
9 ” 
64” 
be 
53” 


73” 
73” 


21” White; head in summer black; long 
bill red. 

Reddish brown; long tail. 

Olive brown, reddish; brown tail. 

Olive, spotted white breast. 

Tawny brown; white below, faintly 
spotted. 

Bright brown on head, shading to 
olive; brown on tail. Breast 
spotted. 

Grayish olive above; 
low; 


7" 

13” 
” 

73 


yellowish bhe- 
streaked with brown. 


6 ” Slate gray; 
crest. 

6 “Olive green; red eye. 

53” Mouse gray; whitish and yellowish 
below. 

3” Above ashy brown; breast, sides and 
crown, bay color. 

53” Crown, sides of head, throat and 

breast orange; the rest black and 

white. 


lighter below; black 


Black and white striped. 


BIRDS 


311 


S. R.—Summer Resident. W. R.—Winter Resident. A, Y.—AIl Year. 
Approximate 
Bird Arrival Size Description 
Warbler, Black-poll, S. 
1k) | eo Pir een spare ashe MALY: 1, 15 53” Black and white streaked; black 
crown. 
Warbler, Black-throated 
iia (OE Od eer May 5, 15 53” Slate blue; black throat; white be- 
low. 
Warbler Black-throated 
GATEQT is) aie) oe 'e\s eusia ene si vi Lay. 5, 15 5 ” Upper parts olive; black throat; un- 
der parts yellowish. 
Warbler, Blue, Golden- 
TS A es . May 5, 15 53” Ashy blue; crown and patch on 
wing golden yellow. 
Warbler, Canadian ..... May 1, 10 53” Necklace of black spots on yellow 
breast. 
Warbler, Cape May ...March 5, 15 5 ” Yellowish olive, orange brown ear 
patch; bluish gray above. 
Warbler, Chestnut-sides, 
nie ke Se . - May 1,15 5 ” Chestnut streaks on side of breast. 
Warbler, Connecticut ...May 1, 15 53” Head bluish slate; under parts yel- 
lowish; and above olive green. 
Warbler, Magnolia ...... May 1 5 ” Blue gray; white patch on wings; 
yellow throat. 
Warbler, Myrtle ...... April 10, 15 53%” Crown, rump, yellow spots on breast. 
Warbler, Nashville . May 1, 15 34” Upper parts olive gray; under parts 
yellowish. 
Warbler, Palm Bees ADL. (20 5 ” Streaky; olive gray above; chestnut 
cap, yellowish below. 
Warbler, Pine ..... Jae say ve 53” Olive green; yellow breast. Two 
white-winged bars. 
Warbler, Parula, S. R... 43” Bluish above; yellowish red below; 
yellow throat. 
Warbler, Prothonotary, 
ek oc cis . May 10, 15 53” Head, neck and under parts rich 
orange and yellow; back yellow- 
ish olive. 
Warbler, Wilson’s Black 
ERS IV ..May 10 43” Back olive green; yellow below; 
black cap. 
Warbler, Yellow, S. R...April 15 5 ” Yellow shaded to olive on back, 
Waxwing, Cedar, S. R...April 10 7 ” Crest and body soft fawn color; tail 
tipped with yellow. 
Whip-poor-Will, S. R. ..May 10 93” Mottled, resembling the bark of 
trees. 
Woodcock, American, 
SRA ee .eeeeee- May-June 107-11 ”% Above brown, black, tawny, gray 


streaked. 


312 


S. R.—Summer Resident. 


Approximate 
Bird Arrival 
Woodpecker, Downy, W. 
Woodpecker, Hairy, rare. 
Woodpecker, Red-head- 

COIS Re ye aieeis eee ADIL LAO 
Wren, House, S. R.....April 5 
Wren, Carolina, S. R., 

very rare, Brennan, 

JANSEN cheleVelsisinelotore te eeu y aig ue 


Wren, Long-billed, S. 
Rea Marsh ire. cic ches 


Wren, Winter 


Yellowthroat, Maryland. .May 120 


W. R.—Winter Resident. 


Size 


63” 
9 Ud 


94” 
43” 


53” 


43” 


THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


A, Y.—AIl Year. 


Description 


Black and white; red band on head. 
Black and white; red band on head. 


Red head, black, white. 
Brown barred with darker. 


Rusty brown; throat and eye line 


whiter. 


Upper parts brown and _biack, 
streaked with white; light brown 
underneath. ; 

Above bright cinnamon; below paler. 
Chunky. Little red. 

Dark above; yellow below; fellow 
throat; black eye patch. 


CHAPTER XXII 


OTHER ANIMAL LIFE—REPTILES 


WoNDERFUL reptiles were found in different parts of 
America in bygone ages, but none of their remains, as yet, 
have been found in the Chicago Dune region. The reptiles 
that have been found in this part of the country are of a 
smaller type, but some of them are dangerous, such as the 
Rattlesnake and the Copperhead. — 

The Turtles are well represented in the swamps of the 
Dunes. The Northern Box Turtle is the daintiest and the 
most beautiful of any found here. Doctor Frank M. Wood- 
ruff has one expertly mounted and placed in one of his 
representations of Duneland. This beautiful specimen was 
found near Mineral Springs, brought to Chicago and after 
a few weeks returned to the Dunes, but was given to Doctor 
Woodruff, who declared it was the most beautiful one he 
had ever seen with its artistic markings of dark and yellow. 

The Painted or Mud Turtle with its red stripes is also 
found here in great numbers. The Snapping Turtle, that 
Ishmaelite of the water, is found here in marshy localities. 
He isa pariah. He preys everywhere, upon everything eat- 
able, even the tender young ducks and goslings, so treasured 
by the thrifty farm wife. He is anathema to the weary, 
patient, hungry fisherman, who finds that his string of fine 


313 


314 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


bass, or perch has been plundered by this insensate glutton, 
and nothing worth while left. The only bit of satisfaction 
left for the indignant victim 1s to catch this thief, and serve 
him up to the table in the form of savory soup and delicate 
roast. Earl Reed describes him finely. 

The Lizards of the Dune region are not poisonous. They 
are covered with small scales, and are small and very ac- 
tive; cunning little pets. The only poisonous lizard known 
is the Gila Monster, found in Arizona and New Mexico. 
Mexicans call it “The Spitter.” It is a foot or eighteen 
inches long, with black and yellow scales, like beads. All 
other Lizards are harmless. The lizard-like animals, cov- 
ered with moist skin, are not lizards, but amphibians, like 
frogs and toads, living both on land and in water. They 
are really Newts and Salamanders. 

The Mud Puppy retains both lungs and gills, the latter 
being well developed, and of a bright red. Some sala- 
manders are blackish with yellow spots, though the different 
species have different colors. The common one is sometimes 
called a salamander, and the ancients believed it was im- 
pervious to heat and so could not be burned. 

The origin of this fable really is that if the animal is 
captured, it becomes so alarmed that it exudes a milky sort 
of a liquid or perspiration from all over its body, which 
might put out a spark of fire. They are absolutely harmless, 
and can be picked up and examined without danger. The 
colored sweat is harmless. 

Another rare reptile, a Lizard, is found in the Dunes. 
It is the so-called Glass Snake; a slender, very fragile lizard 
with fine bones, without legs, and somewhat resembles a 
Garter Snake. These legs, however, are present under the 


OTHER ANIMAL LIFE 315 


skin, in a very rudimentary condition. If it is hit, or ex- 
cessively frightened, it has the power to contract its muscles 
so as to break off the tail, back bone and all, and scuttle off. 
The tail, as with all lizards, will grow on again, but with- 
out the backbone, making a queer-looking appendage. This 
brittleness gives them their name. The broken parts never 
can unite, in spite of the belief of many country people. 

Doctor Herman Pepoon, the botanist, discovered two of 
these about five years ago at Dune Park, and one at Miller. 
Doctor Frank Woodruff, of the Chicago Academy of 
Sciences, found one at Mineral Springs, in May, 1918. Mr. 
Arthur Patterson, the game warden of East Gary, Indiana, 
has seen a number of them. 

The Rattlesnake and Copperhead have for ages found 
this a most congenial region. Miss Frances Howe states 
that when her grandfather, Joseph Bailly, the fur-trader, 
settled .Baileytown in 1822, the Indians still came in from 
all over this section of the Northwest, to get the venom of 
the poisonous snakes that were then so numerous in the 
Dune region, with which to make their famous poisons. 

But these poisonous snakes have almost entirely disap- 
peared from the Dunes. The Copperhead is said to be ab- 
solutely exterminated. A few rattlesnakes are left, but are 
very shy and seldom seen; nobody has for many years been 
bitten by one, except a young man at Mineral Springs, in 
1920, who picked up a baby rattler to examine it, not know- 
ing what it was. It was over a foot long, with one rattle 
and a button. Doctor Pepoon killed it. The man was very 
sick for several weeks. People should not pick up brown 
or black spotted snakes here to study; it is too risky. The 
rattlesnake will soon follow the copperhead into oblivion. 


316 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


There are but few snakes to be seen among the dune ridges; 
one may travel all day without seeing one. The most com- 
mon ones are the Garter, the Green, the Blue-Black Racer, 
the Milk or Bull Snake, and the Hog-nosed Snake, or Blow- 
ing Viper. All of these are harmless. 

The Blue Racers found in the Dunes range from two to 
five feet in length. They are a variety of blacksnake and 
have a bluish body, shading into blackish at the top. They 
are not dangerous at all, but may “put up a bluff,” and re- 
fuse to get out of the way. A stick applied will soon send 
them to shelter. 

The Blowing Adder, which is scarce, is a short, thick, 
brownish-marked snake, from one to three feet long, and 
looks much like a rattler. It will swell up its head, flatten 
out its neck, something like a Cobra, coil its tail, hiss, and 
even strike at you, with wide-open mouth, and look vicious; 
but it has no fangs and no poison and is soon put to flight. 
It will even turn on its back, and “play possum,” pretending 
itis dead. It is a “camouflage rattler.” Many people think 
that it is very poisonous. The rattler found in the Dunes 
has a triangular head, broad at the base, a short, thick body, 
sometimes an inch or more thick, brown markings and has 
rattles. A person may travel here for many years and never 
see one; in fact, very few people have ever seen one here. 
One caution. The rattler has several sets of fangs. Ifa 
fang is broken off, another one grows out in its place. Some 
people, not knowing this, have played with these denatured 
rattlers, and have been bitten and died. 

A few rattlesnakes were noticed in 1918 at the Dunes. 
One with eight rattles was killed at Tremont, near the new 
Link Cottage, now the Boy Scout Clubhouse. Another was 


OTHER ANIMAL LIFE 317 


killed about 'a block from there by Mr. Hauber, an old 
settler. They were not the Banded Rattlesnake, but were 
the small Massasauga, or Swamp Rattler. 

Captain Charles H. Robinson, of the Prairie Club, and 
Professor Chamberlain, of the University of Chicago, found 
one a few weeks after that near the Cowles Tamarack 
Swamp, sunning itself on the old Detroit and Chicago Post 
Road, near the Mineral Springs Road. Captain Robinson 
took a snap-shot of it about six feet away, while Professor 
Chamberlain stood over it with a club, ready to hit it if it 
became dangerous, killing it later. 

The author was told by a conductor on the South Shore 
Electric that in 1917, when the switch line now at Port- 
chester was located at Mineral Springs, he attempted to un- 
lock the switch. It was dark and he was near the switch 
when he heard a sharp peculiar rattling, like hissing. This 
grew louder as he neared the lock of the switch, and became 
so loud that he flashed his electric light to see what it was, 
and there on the track, in front of him was a rattler. 

The conductor, who always detested snakes, says he was 
so startled that he made a record jump out of the way, and 
on telling the brakeman, the latter grabbed a couple of big 
stones and killed the rattler. It was about two and a half 
feet long, over an inch thick and had five rattles and a but- 
ton. The rattles were cut off, and the snake thrown away. 
Needless to say, this conductor is not a lover of the Dunes 
after dark. While the record standing jump is eleven feet 
six inches, he is sure he cleared twelve feet. 

The author killed a swamp rattler near Tremont on June 
27, 1920, while it was crossing a trail. It was about two 
feet long, over an inch thick at the middle of its body, and 


318 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


had five rattles and a button. These were very small, and 
the rattling sound was more like a harsh hiss. The rattler 
did not coil, but rattled incessantly, and while the author 
almost leaned over it, studying it, the snake watched him. © 
It made no motion to strike. Was evidently a male. The 
females are livelier. 

The spots on this rattler were a dark brown saddle-shaped 
spot on the back laid on lighter brown. Along the sides 
were spots of solid, very dark brown almost as large as 
a pea. On the center of the back, about half-way between 
head and tail, was a large dark-brown round spot, the size 
of a large pea. There was an orange ring round the tail 
near the rattles, which were cut off. 

Doctor Hornady, one of the greatest authorities on nat- 
ural history in the world, says that the common idea that 
a rattlesnake grows one new rattle a year is all wrong; 
that they will sometimes grow from two to three. He says 
this swamp rattler is now rare. Those in the Dunes are 
very sluggish. The great fire in the Turnersville Swamp 
lately must have burned up most of them. 

In the ancient sea that covered this region in olden times, 
especially in the Devonian period, some of the most terrible 
fishes that ever existed roamed around this neighborhood, 
looking for prey. They were mainly covered with bony 
scales, like Sturgeon, Garfish and Dogfish; others had im- 
perfect scales like rough skin, as Sharks, Skates and Rays. 

The fishes of the present Chicago Dune region are much 
smaller and less ferocious than those of the ancient sea that 
covered this region. Those large bone-plated fish have been 
succeeded by the smaller ones, such as the Sturgeon, the 
Garfish and the Dogfish. 


OTHER ANIMAL LIFE 319 


Of the present-day fishes found here, the largest is the 
Sturgeon, which is still found in Lake Michigan, sometimes 
over six feet long, and weighing from one hundred to two 
hundred pounds. One caught recently at Miller weighed one 
hundred and seventy-five pounds. The flesh is very good 
when smoked, and the roe is sold as a delicacy under the 
name of caviar, like that which is produced by the European 
Sturgeon. The roe is of a chocolate color, like that of its 
cousins, the Garfish, and the despised Dogfish, both of which 
are found in the Dune region as well as in the Chicago area. 

In addition to these found in Lake Michigan are the 
Trout, Whitefish, Pike, Bass, Sheepshead, Herring, Perch, 
Sunfish, Eels; and lately the beautiful Land Locked Salmon, 
or Steelhead Trout with its shining silvery scales, and which 
weighs from five to ten pounds. Some are caught at Miller, 
at Waverly Beach and possibly at other places. Doctor 
Bob Becker, the Editor of “Woods and Waters” in the 
Chicago Tribune, gives great help in describing our Chicago 
Dune animals, birds and fishes. He is a noted naturalist. 

In the lakes and rivers of the Chicago Dune region, such 
as Lakes Calumet, Wolfe, George and Long; in the Little 
Calumet and Grand Calumet Rivers, with their tributaries, 
and in Trail Creek at Michigan City, can be found a large 
variety of fishes. Among them are the Bass, Pike, Pickerel, 
Perch, Sunfish, a few Eels, Suckers, Bullheads, Catfish, 
Carp, Buffalo-fish, Garfish, Dogfish and many other kinds 
of small fish. 

The insects of the Dunes are of great number and va- 
riety. Doctor Blatchley has written a book about them 
that is very interesting and scholarly. New species are 
described there also. 


320 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


In 1916 the Chicago Principals’ Club gave an outing at 
Miller, Indiana. Mr. Wilbur H. Wright was seen walking 
over the great dune at the east, examining the sand very 
intently. On asking what he was looking for, he displayed 
a small vial containing a most beautiful gray female spider ; 
he was looking for this, and especially a male specimen, the 
latter having never been discovered. 

He had discovered this species some time before and had 
sent an account of it to an authority on spiders, living in 
the East, asking for its name and other information, as it 
was new to him. He was very much surprised a few weeks 
later to receive a visit from this expert, who said he had 
become so interested that he took the train as soon as pos- 
sible for Chicago. 

On examining this beautiful spider, the expert declared 
that it was an entirely new species of Lycosa, and it was 
named in honor of our Chicago entomologist, Lycosa 
wrightu. Mr. Wright is still looking for a male specimen, 
and those of our readers who are not afraid of spiders may 
have a chance to immortalize themselves by finding the male 
companion; provided, however, that the beautiful female 
has not already eaten up its consort, as is the case with some 
of them, who thus seek to solve the problem of the H. C. L. 

Mr. James McDade, of Chicago, formerly the President 
of the Illinois Entomological Society and a naturalist of 
note, has made an exhaustive study of the Dunes for years. 
He has done some original work in finding rare insects, 
studying their habits, and classifying them. He describes 
the insect life of the Dunes as follows: : 


OTHER ANIMAL LIFE 321 


“The Dune Region is especially rich in insect life, not 
only because of furnishing the conditions peculiarly favor- 
able to many particular kinds of animal life, but also because 
of the varied environment of lake, forest land, and treeless 
prairie which surrounds it. Besides, the relation of insect 
life to flora is most intimate, and the great variety of plant 
life in the Dune country is hospitable to a corresponding 
variety of insect population. They are found by the thou- 
sands along the lake shore, both living and dead. 

“Turning away from the cool wet beach sometimes 
covered with drowned insects, to the hot sand hills glimmer- 
ing in the sun, we can scarcely walk a rod without starting 
up some of the swift-footed and swifter-winged Tiger 
Beetles in bronze and black and gold, running rapidly over 
the sand and always poised for flight, quite characteristic 
of the sand area. We may sit down under the welcome 
shade of the sand-willow or dwarfed and twisted poplar 
and see life all about us. Here is the little larval Ant 
Lion vigorously shoveling the sand out with that most prim- 
itive of shovels, his head, until he has sunk his funnel in 
the sand and hopefully ensconced himself at its tip, with 
only his tongs-like jaws projecting, waiting for his prey. 
There, not three feet away, is a bandit of another type. 
It is the litthe Sand Spider, first cousin of the Tarantula, 
and with many of the tribal habits. He runs rapidly across 
the sand, and disappears suddenly into a tiny silk-lined well, 
perhaps a foot deep, the outlaw den from which he sallies 
forth for raids on his insect neighbors. Just beyond we 
see an industrious colony of Wasps building their nest on 
a swaying branch of willow. 

“We cross over the dune ridge into one of the swamp 
depressions between the sand hills, and in the numerous 
shallow pools we find a rich variety of pond insects. Skim- 
ming over the surface of the water are many species of 
Dragon Flies, while perhaps we see flitting in and out of 
the bushes a flashing black one. On the surface of the pools 
Water Striders are circling and dashing like swift motor 


322 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


boats, while through the depths dart the Water Boatmen, 
like tiny submarines. 

“If we choose to camp on the Dunes for the night, and 
stalk the insects by artificial light, a rich harvest awaits us. 
The tree trunks on the margin of the groves back of the 
Dunes will yield rare red-underwing Moths, of which there 
are very many beautiful species. And to see one of the 
most astounding insect phenomena of all, that can be ex- 
celled only in the tropics, a person should visit one of the 
stretches of swampy land back of the dunes on a favorable 
June night, and watch the Fireflies flashing in millions over 
an area that seems to extend as far as the eye can reach— 
one great shimmering field of phosphorescent fire.” 


Doctor Elliott Downing, of the University of Chicago, 
has also done much work in the study of insects of the 
Dunes, finding many rare forms. He notes particularly the 
difference in coloring in the insects, especially as one goes 
south from the lake. Those near the lake are lighter, dark- 
ening as the distance from the lake increases, and the old 
beaches, the Tolleston, Calumet and Glenwood, are reached. 

To a student of insect life the Dunes offer a most fasci- 
nating and interesting field for their observation. Their 
number is legion; their kinds and habits likewise. The 
great moths and butterflies are there by the thousands; all 
sizes, forms and colors, red, yellow, green, blue, white and 
black; shading into all kinds of tints, some soft, others 
glaring, and still others iridescent; all laid on by the Master 
Painter. In form, most of the insects are beautiful; some 
quaint, some bizarre, a few repulsive. 

Truly, the Dunes is a veritable Garden of the Gods to one 
seeking beauty, inspiration and fascinating plant and ani- 
mal life. 


CONCLUSION 


WHY THE DUNES SHOULD BE SAVED 
By Richard Lieber, Director of Conservation for Indiana 


Mucu has been said for the desirability of preserving the 
sand-dunes in some form or other. The United States 
government will not likely take them over, because there 
is no legal precedent; all other parks either having been 
cut out of the public domain or presented to the govern- 
ment. 

It is plainly the duty of the State to rescue this land 
of unsurpassed beauty and protect it for all time to come. 
Teachers and preachers, nature lovers and artists, social 
welfare workers and other visionaries and wholly impracti- 
cal people, in season and out of season, have worked for 
the preservation of the Duneland, while eminently practical 
men have, in the meantime, been busily at work removing 
whole hillsides of sand for the purpose of track elevation 
and for cash. During this time the great mass of people 
has indolently looked on. 

Why should the Dunes be saved? There are many 
reasons why they should. According to scientists our own 
Indiana sand-dunes are the finest in the world. They are 
the most accessible dunes; they possess extremely interest- 
ing fauna and flora; offer unparalleled opportunities to 
observe the action of wind and its influence on the sand and 
plant life; the Lake Michigan beach is beautiful and offers 


323 


324 THE WONDERS ‘OF THE DUNES 


bathing facilities to a multitude; recreational uses are un- 
limited. The Dunes are poetic, they are beautiful, they are 
wonderful; they are just about the most beautiful and won- 
derful thing we have in the Mid-West. 

The Dunes are the only real outlet for the people of | 
Chicago and Indiana on to Lake Michigan. They are 
the one big and last opportunity to furnish a great recrea- 
tional outdoors for the millions of Chicago and northern 
Indiana industrial centers. Their health value is enor- 
mous. Millions of people are limited to two weeks’ vacation 
and with little money to spend. Two weeks spent in the 
open air of the Dunes, away from the city, means a com- 
plete rejuvenation. Here the great numbers of foreign- 
born laborers of the region may see and be taught what 
the primitive America was. It will give a new sense 
of proprietorship, not only to the recent immigrant, but to 
the children that are to the manner born, and by establish- 
ing this great common playground of the people, we will 
make a center for the getting together and the unifying of 
the cosmopolitan people of the world, gathered together 
in this international citizenship, such as nothing else can 
accomplish. The present generation needs it, the industrial 
centers of the region are growing rapidly and future gen- 
erations are going to need them more. 

Unlike other National Parks, it is not only highly access- 
ible, but it is accessible the year round, being as attrac- 
tive in winter as in summer. 

But there is a further answer to the question: “Why 
Should the Dunes Be Saved?” One hundred and thirty- 
three years ago that famous ordinance, sometimes called 


WHY THE DUNES SHOULD BE SAVED 325 


the “Magna Charta of the West,’ made a political unit out 
of the great region north of the Ohio River—that district 
which later on divided itself into the sister states of Ohio. 
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. 

As a northern outpost in this territory, Fort Dearborn 
was established in 1803, and from Detroit marched the 
first military unit through this very Duneland to occupy 
this fort of utmost peril, of imperishable honor and un- 
dying glory, which was destined to open the great North- 
west of the American Republic. 

There is a well-defined trail leading from Detroit to 
Chicago, through the very territory we hope to see set aside 
as a public domain. Traders and trappers, Indians and 
white men, soldiers and adventurers, missionaries and en- 
terprising merchants traversed the district. It connected 
over one hundred years ago the strong-hold on Lake Erie 
with the fighting outpost on Lake Michigan as to-day it 
connects the second with the fourth largest city in the 
United States, and passes through that state which for 
many decades has held the center of its population. 

You may argue against saving the Dunes because of 
its wealth of flowers, birds, trees and scenery that should be 
saved, although I doubt that you could; but of one thing 
I am sure, that I could never be persuaded to change my 
determined view of helping save the Dunes; because they 
are the one last impressive and stately remnant of the 
days long gone by. They are the last token in its original 
condition of Colonial and Revolutionary days. With their 
broad outlook over the majestic Michigan they are the last 
remnant of time and space over which the procession of that 


326 THE WONDERS OF THE DUNES 


grand cultural pageant of grandiose American enterprise 
has swept. Like unto the Last of the Mohicans the region 
is standing an undaunted and unperturbed guard over the 
rest of that which once upon a time—was. 

The people of the Middle West, and especially of In- 
diana, owe it to themselves to call a halt and to set aside 
forever, as a sanctuary for all time to come, as a tribute 
to the days gone by, this wonderful land. 


THE END 


Errata 


Mr. Brennan, who is untiring in his investigations and scrup- 
lous in his regard for accuracy, has asked that the following 
rrors in the text, which were not discovered until after this 
‘ook was printed, be called to his readers’ attention: On page 
02, line 26, for “ear” read “near,” and in line BO OrtCat = 
rds” read “Butcher Birds.” On page 303,to line 6 add: “They 
vere butcher birds or shrikes.”” In line 12, read “ordinary” 
vefore “Butcher Bird,” in line 14 read “Mulfinger” for 
Doepp,” in line 25 read “butcher birds” for “catbirds,” and 
1 line 28 after “situated”? read “Mr. Diekman has made 
'fidavit to the truth of this.”_Tu PUBLISHERS 








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